Ground anchor GROUND ANCHORS AND NAILS

Ground anchors and soil nails are soil mass retaining devices constructed to transmitting an applied tensile load to a load bearing stratum. Anchors and nails are normally pre-stressed, composed of steel bars that are introduced into a small diameter pre-drilled hole of limited diameter and covered with borehole grout. Construction sequence Installation process of ground anchors: in accordance with the requirements of standard NBN EN 1537 : Ground anchors 1. & 2. Drilling of a borehole at a defined angle using an external protection (tubes / casing crown), under drilling fluid 3. At the required level of depth, replacement of the drilling fluid by a (primary) grout injected through the injection conduit which is withdrawn as the borehole is filled with grout (simultaneous drill and grout). 4. Insertion of the reinforcement (bar tendons, strand tendons,…) over a fixed bond length (anchor length) and a possible free tendon length (free anchor length), according to the design. 5. Cement grout under pressure (borehole grout) is injected as the external protection tube is progressively removed: formation of the (bond length) grout body (or ‘core’) 6. The completed ground anchor 7. Active anchor : pre-stressed to reduce structural movement. Transfer their load over a fixed length. Performance at least seven days after injection with classic grout cement. Passive anchor or nail : un-pre-stressed, cemented in the stabilized mass over their whole length thus performing solely during deformations of the soil