ABSTRACT

The Suction Embedded Plate Anchor (SEPLA) was introduced to the anchoring market in 1998 in response to the growing industry need for anchors capable of resisting high vertical mooring loads. The concept of the SEPLA was to combine the advantages of suction piles (i.e., known penetration depth and geographical location) with those of VLAs (i.e., geotechnical efficiency and lower cost), while trying to avoid their drawbacks (i.e., large, heavy and costly to handle suction caissons, and imprecisely positioned VLAs).