The Behavior of Horizontal Anchor Foundations Embedded in Sand under Uplift and Lateral Loads

Abstract The existing research on anchor foundations has predominantly focused on their axial load-carrying capacity, disregarding their resistance to the combined uplift and lateral forces during operation. To address this gap, the present study employs a three-dimensional finite-difference analysis to examine the behavior of horizontal anchor foundations buried in sand under the influence of uplift and lateral loads. The novelty of this work lies in the application of combined loading on the shaft head and the subsequent evaluation of both vertical and horizontal displacements of the foundation. The results reveal that the displacements are notably more significant in the horizontal direction. Furthermore, the paper presents a detailed analysis of the foundation’s failure mechanisms under various combinations of vertical and horizontal forces. It is observed that pure vertical forces induce an uplift shear failure, whereas pure horizontal forces lead to a rotational failure. Based on the results, a failure envelope in the V:H loading plane is proposed for the horizontal anchor foundation subjected to oblique loads.