Study on the Effect of Water Content on Shearing Strength Parameters of Unsaturated Loess

Abstract

This paper experiments on typical Malan loess, performs consolidated quick direct shear tests under different water contents by conventional direct shear apparatus, then analyzes the effects of water content on shearing strength parameters, namely cohesion and internal friction angle. The results show that cohesion decreases linearly as the water content increasing, and the relation could be obtained by data fitting. However, internal friction angle keeps basically stable with the increase of water content. Finally, based on the force analysis for micro particles, the changing rules of cohesion and internal friction angle with water content were deeply explained.