Anchors

Anchor is specified by two points and a force. The first point is always located on the ground surface; the force always acts in the direction of a soil body. The anchor force when computing equilibrium on a given block (slice) is added to the weightless surcharge of the slope.

Two options are available to account for anchors:

• Compute anchor lengths – analysis assumes infinite lengths of anchors (anchors are always included in the analysis) and computes the required lengths of links anchors (distance between the anchor head and intersection of anchor with the slip surface) subsequently. The anchor root is then placed behind the slip surface. This approach is used whenever we wish the anchor to be always active and thus contribute to increase the slope stability and we need to know its minimum distance.
• Analysis with specified lengths of anchors – the analysis takes into account only those anchors that have their end points (center of roots) behind the slip surface. This approach is used always whenever we wish to evaluate the current state of slope with already existing anchors, since it may happen that some of the anchors may prove to be short to intersect the critical slip surface so that they do not contribute to increase the slope stability.