Effect of different moisture content and triaxial test methods on shear strength characteristics of loess

This paper discussed the effect of moisture content on shear strength of loess during different confining pressure firstly. The variation law of deformation parameters, i.e. shear strength and secant modulus is analysed in detail. The results show that moisture content is the dominant factor of shear strength of Loess, with the increase of water content, the strength parameters levelled down, and there is a linear relationship between them to a certain extent. Compared with confining pressure, the effect of water content on shear strength is more obvious. In addition, triaxial test under different drainage conditions were carried out, namely, consolidated drained(CD) test and consolidated undrained(CU) test. Results indicate that the shear damage characteristics are similar during the two test methods.