Influence of structure on the behavior of a saturated clayey loess

An intensive experimental investigation by means of triaxial and oedometer tests was performed on a clayey loess that was retrieved from two depths at a location on the southern Chinese Loess Plateau. Intact and reconstituted samples were used to identify the effects of the natural structure on soil behavior in saturated conditions. The behavior in compression was clearly affected by structure with the intact samples reaching well-defined gross yield points outside the intrinsic compression line of the reconstituted soil, after which the compression paths converged towards the intrinsic compression lines, behavior which is consistent with destructuration. However, very high stresses were required to give complete convergence. Similarly the triaxial tests that were carried out at lower stress levels also did not give convergence of the critical states so that different critical state lines could be defined for the intact and reconstituted soils. This was consistent with qualitative observations from scanning electron micrographs that natural elements of fabric and possibly bonding persisted even after triaxial shearing. The effects of structure at the two depths on the compression and shearing behavior were slightly larger for the shallower samples. Despite the very different genesis of the soils, it was found that similar frameworks could be applied to those used for sedimentary clays and that the degree of structure was equivalent to a clay of medium sensitivity.