Lateral resistance of pipes and strip anchors buried in dense sand

The response of buried pipes and vertical strip anchors in dense sand under lateral loading is compared based on finite-element (FE) modeling. Incorporating strain-softening behaviour of dense sand, the progressive development of shear bands and the mobilization of friction and dilation angles along the shear bands are examined, which can explain the variation of peak and post-peak resistances for anchors and pipes. The normalized peak resistance increases with embedment ratio and remains almost constant at large burial depths. When the height of an anchor is equal to the diameter of the pipe, the anchor gives approximately 10% higher peak resistance than that of the pipe. The transition from the shallow to deep failure mechanisms occurs at a larger embedment ratio for anchors than pipes. A simplified method is proposed to estimate the lateral resistance at the peak and also after softening at large displacements.