Abstract: In order to simulate the actual stress and deformation state of disturbed soil at different positions of under-ground engineering construction, we designed four test groups to explore the strength and deformation characteristics of soil under different stress paths. The four tests are conventional triaxial compression test, compression test with equal P, isotropic consolidation decompressed compression test, and anisotropic consolidation decompressed compression test. Experimental results show that the soil exhibits different strength and deformation characteristics under different shear paths. In conventional compression condition the strength is the highest, whereas in decompression condition the strength is the lowest. Moreover, strain softening did not appear under the three different shear paths.

Key words: saturated silty soil, stress path, stress release, soil strength, deformation characteristics, test study