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In recent years oil and gas mining has moved into increasingly deeper water in search of undeveloped fields. As water depths approach and exceed 3000 m conventional offshore foundation systems become inefficient and ineffective in stabilising platforms and floating production storage units. The trend of supporting structure design in deep water has been to install catenary and taut leg mooring systems. Consequently, many types of anchoring systems are being developed and used in order to withstand large mooring forces. The SEPLA (Suction Embedded Plate Anchor) is ideal for use in this situation. This project has employed advanced numerical techniques and centrifuge testing to study pullout behaviour of plate anchor foundations in different soil profiles and suction caisson installation effect with the aim of generating a robust framework for design. The behaviour of strip and circular plate anchors during vertical pullout in uniform and normally consolidated clays has been studied by means of small strain and large deformation finite element analyses. Both fully bonded (attached), and ‘vented’ (no suction on rear face), anchors have been considered. The current numerical results were compared with existing laboratory test data, finite element results and analytical solutions. This study showed that the ultimate pullout capacity factors (Nc) for deep embedment were 11.6 and 11.7 for smooth and rough strip anchors and 13.1 and 13.7 for smooth and rough circular anchors respectively. When the anchor base was vented, the soil stayed attached to the anchor base for deep embedment, and the pullout capacity was therefore the same as for the attached anchor. The separation depth ratio, Hs/B or Hs/D was found to increase linearly with the normalised strength ratio, su/γ'B or su/γ'D. / Numerical simulation has been conducted to assess the bearing capacity for inclined pullout plate anchors. This bearing capacity analysis was performed by embedding the anchors in clay with different initial inclinations and different embedment ratios. Both the attached anchor base and vented base were evaluated. The results showed that the bearing capacities of the inclined plate anchors were associated with the inclination angles and base conditions. The separation depth of the plate anchors can be assessed by a simple equation from vertically pulled out plate anchors. Large deformation finite element analyses of plate anchor keying in clay has been performed. The effects of anchor thickness, anchor padeye eccentricity, anchor-soil interface roughness, soil shear strength, anchor submerged weight and soil disturbance have been studied with anchors in uniform or normally consolidated clays. The numerical results were compared with transparent soil test and existing centrifuge test data. The study showed that the RITSS method works well in simulating the anchor keying process. Anchor padeye eccentricity played an important role in anchor keying. A normalised anchor geometry ratio was used to estimate the loss in embedment during plate anchor’s keying. Both finite element analysis and centrifuge tests have been conducted to study the suction caisson installation effect. In finite element analysis, the soil disturbed zone varied from 3 times the caisson wall thickness to a full area inside a caisson. / Centrifuge tests of suction embedded plate anchors were conducted in normally consolidated kaolin clay and transparent uniform soil. It can be concluded that the reduction in anchor capacity due to soil disturbance after suction caisson installation depends on re-consolidation time and soil sensitivity. The soil disturbance also reduced the loss of embedment during the anchor keying process.

En nuestro país, actualmente no se cuenta con una norma estandarizada ni con normas técnicas que involucren los procesos de preparación e inyección de lechada cementicia en sistemas de anclajes de muros. Además, las empresas están teniendo problemas de desempeño en la prueba de carga del anclaje, el cual se relaciona directamente con la lechada. Para ello, se presenta una propuesta de metodología para uniformizar los procesos de preparación, inyección en los sistemas de anclajes de muros pantalla con suelo gravoso y control de calidad de lechada cementicia en obra. La investigación incluye visitas a obras para recopilar información sobre la calidad de mano de obra, procesos de aplicación de lechada y toma de muestras para el control de calidad. Asimismo, incluye la evaluación de la reología y propiedades mecánicas a escala de laboratorio según dosificaciones requeridas por las especificaciones técnicas de los reglamentos UNE y ACI. / In our country, there is currently no standardized nor technical norms that involve the processes of preparation and injection of cementitious grout in wall anchor systems. In addition, companies are having performance problems in the anchor load test, which is directly influenced by the grout. For this, a proposal of methodology is presented to standardize the processes of preparation, injection in the systems of anchors of screen walls with loamy ground and quality control of cementitious grout in building. The research includes visits to buildings to collect information on the quality of labor, grout application processes and sampling for quality control. It also includes the evaluation of rheology and mechanical properties on a laboratory scale according to dosages required by the technical specifications of the UNE and ACI regulations. / Tesis

As part of the work in this project, a literature review is conducted to determine the optimal thickness of the outer concrete layer in prefabricated concrete sandwich elements. These elements are used as exterior walls in buildings and consist of a load-bearing inner concrete layer, an intermediate insulation layer, and an outer concrete layer that forms the building's facade. The focus is on optimizing the sandwich wall in precast concrete by reducing the thickness of the outer skin compared to the current standard thickness of 80 mm. This could potentially reduce the weight of the elements by approximately 1.5-2 tons by reducing the thickness from 80 mm to 30 mm. This weight reduction can have a significant impact, for instance, on the crane capacity in large construction projects, allowing a crane to handle all the elements on a construction site without the need for relocation. Additionally, this optimization of the sandwich wall will result in cost savings by using less material in the elements, as well as impacting other aspects of the construction process, such as energy consumption and transportation costs. In this project, test specimens of size 400mm x 400mm have been used, and to draw comprehensive conclusions, full-scale experiments are required to account for factors such as temperature variations and shrinkage in the outer skin. In this work, compressive strength tests have also been conducted to determine the strength of the concrete used in the outer skin of the tested sandwich walls. The concrete used in the tests was a fiber-reinforced concrete from Finja, and the reinforcing mesh was a hot-dip galvanized plaster mesh. Initially, samples were cast to test the laboratory equipment and evaluate the testing methods. Subsequently, the remaining samples were cast and tested according to a predetermined schedule to ensure relevant testing conditions. Samples on the wall elements were made with both diagonal and straight anchoring and were tested under tensile load parallel to the outer layer as well as tensile load perpendicular to the outer layer. In total, 20 samples were conducted in the study, testing various combinations of anchoring systems, loads, reinforcement, and recesses. Samples 1-10 were tested with diagonal anchoring and parallel load, while samples 11-20 were tested with perpendicular anchoring and perpendicular in combination with parallel load. The samples exhibited a variation in failure types, such as grain failure in the outer layer, anchor pull-out, adhesion, and outer layer failure. The highest load values were observed in sample 2 (8.7 kN) and 6 (7.6 kN) for samples 1 to 10, and sample 12 (10.6 kN) and 15 (9 kN) for samples 11 to 20. In summary, it can be stated that the trials have yielded initially positive results regarding the practical use of a thinner outer panel for prefabricated concrete sandwich elements.