The influence of soil reinforcement on the uplift response of symmetrical anchor plate embedded in sand Hamed Niroumand ⇑ , Khairul Anuar Kassim, Ramli Nazir Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia article info Article history: Received 15 November 2012 Received in revised form 10 April 2013 Accepted 29 April 2013 Available online 28 May 2013 Keywords: Grid fixed reinforced (GFR) Uplift response Symmetrical anchor plate Geogrid FRP abstract Uplift response of symmetrical anchor plates with and without geogrid and grid fixed rein- forced (GFR) reinforcement has been evaluated in model tests and numerical simulation using Plaxis. Many items of reinforcement layers were used to reinforce the sandy soil over symmetrical anchor plate. In the current research, different factors such as relative density of sand, embedment ratios along with geogrid and GFR parameters including size, number of layers, and the proximity of the layer to the anchor plate have been investigated in a scale model. The failure mechanism and the associated rupture surface were observed and evaluated. GFR is a new tied up system with innovative design, made from fiber rein- forcement polymer (FRP) which anchors the geogrid into the soil. Test results showed that using GFR reinforcement has a significant effect in improving the uplift capacity of circular anchor plates. It was found that inclusion of one layer GFR that is located resting directly on top of the anchor plate was more effective in enhancing the anchor capacity than reinforc- ing the geogrid or itself. It was found that inclusion of one layer of geogrid on the symmet- rical anchor plate improved the uplift capacity by 19% as compared to the same symmetrical anchor plate embedded without reinforcement. However with the inclusion of GFR the uplift respond improved further to 29%. The single layer geogrid was also more effective in enhancing the uplift capacity compared to the multilayer geogrid reinforce- ment. On the other hand the single layer geogrid with GFR gives higher uplift capacity as compared to single layer geogrid. This is due to the additional anchorage provided by the GFR at each level of reinforcement. In general the results show that the uplift capacity of symmetrical anchor plates in loose and dense sand can be significantly increased by the inclusion of geogrid with GFR. It was also observed that the inclusion of geogrid with GFR reduces the requirement for higher L/D ratio to achieve a required uplift capacity. The lab- oratory and numerical analysis results are found to be in agreement in terms of break-out factor and failure mechanism pattern. Crown Copyright Ó 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The design of many structures need to foundation sys- tems to resist vertical or horizontal uplift loads. As part of a larger effort to improve the performance of foundation systems, the development of guidelines for anchor system design and installation. The different structures like trans- mission towers, tunnels, sea walls, buried pipelines; and retaining wall are subjected to considerable uplift forces. In such cases, an absorbing and economic design solution may be obtained through the use of tension members. These elements, which are related to as anchors, are gener- ally fixed to the structure and embedded in the ground to effective depth so that they can resist uplifting forces, will safety. 0263-2241/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright Ó 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2013.04.072 ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Post-Doc, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. E-mail address: ham.niroumand@yahoo.com (H. Niroumand). Measurement 46 (2013) 2608–2629 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Measurement journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/measurement