Study on Pullout Behavior of Embedded Suction Anchors in Sand using ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) Technique

The embedded suction anchor, ESA, is one type of mooring anchor systems which utilizes the suction pile or caisson to penetrate the anchor into the sea bed and develops its capacity under pullout load. In this study, the numerical analysis using ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) Adaptive Meshing technique was performed to simulate the pullout behavior of the ESA, and the results were compared to those of the previous research, centrifuge model tests and the analytical method based on limit equilibrium theory. The pullout behaviors of the ESA under horizontal, vertical, and inclined loading were evaluated. The analysis results showed that the maximum horizontal pullout load was developed when the location of loading point was at the mid-point, and the each vertical pullout load gave the similar value regardless of the locations of the loading points. The pullout load decreased as the load inclination angle increased at the mid-point of the anchor.