ABSTRACT
At present, uniformity of stresses along the seal is allowed in the design of grouted anchors even though theoretical and experimental studies show an exponential distribution of shearing stresses. This exponential distribution has been observed for anchors injected into brittle rocks; for soft rocks, the exponential distribution evolves towards a uniform distribution following the pronounced failure of the bonding. The present article addresses the current knowledge on dimensionning of and stress distribution in grouted anchors. The breaking phenomenon of an anchor, consisting of a steel rod sealed in rock, is explained and quantified by means of:
the elaboration of a behavioural model deduced from the literature;
laboratory tests on smaal-scale and actual-size models, the representativity of which has been verified by:
field tests;
computer analysis of the results;
a new method of dimensionning for short-term and permanent loads.
