Spinnanker – Experiences with a New Foundation and Anchor System

Abstract

The Spinnanker is a new developed foundation and anchor system to lead forces into the subsoil. The Spinnanker can be installed almost on ervery type of terrain, even on steep slopes, in nearly all kinds of subsoil material. Based on comprehensive theoretical analysis and in-situ field tests the load deformation behaviour of the Spinnanker has been defined. Up to now more than 4,000 Spinnanker have been installed for permanent and temporary construction tasks. The Spinnanker consists of a steel plate and 6 or 12 steel bars with a length of up to 8 m. For the installation the steel bars are screwed into the subsoil. One person can install the Spinnanker in less than one hour without using any heavy equipment. The system does not need any concrete and can be removed totally without any parts remaining in the subsoil. The paper presents the theoretical approaches, the developed principle of the design and the application in engineering practice. For example the Spinnanker is used for anchoring and foundation of houses, farming and fabrication halls, slope stabilisation, auxiliary constructions (e.g. for overhead electricity line towers) and fixed-points for construction machines.