Pullout capacity of small ground anchors by direct cone penetration test methods and neural networks

Marquees are temporary light structures that are connected to the ground by small anchors that act in tension and are designed to resist uplift forces. Due to the temporary nature of these structures, little, if any, attention is given to the pullout capacity of the anchors used to secure them. Failures of such structures are not rare and have resulted in deaths and tens of thousands of dollars of damage. This paper reports on a series of 119 in situ anchor pullout tests conducted on rough mild steel anchors of various lengths, cross-sectional shapes, and areas. Comparison tests are carried out to investigate the impact of the factors affecting the pullout capacity of small anchors. Six methods that determine the axial pile capacity directly from cone penetration test (CPT) data are presented and used to calculate the pullout capacity of small ground anchors. The capacities obtained from these CPT-based methods are compared with predictions from a recently developed artificial neural network (ANN) model. The actual pullout loads are compared with predictions from the CPT and ANN methods, and statistical analyses are carried out to evaluate and rank their performance. The results indicate that the ANN-based method provides superior predictions of the pullout capacity of small ground anchors, whereas the Schmertmann method provides the best performance of the CPT-based techniques examined.Key words: ground anchors, pullout capacity, cone penetration test, artificial neural networks.