Experimental Study on Strength Anisotropy of Loess in Near-Fault Area

Abstract

The anisotropy of loess has been widely studied. However, most studies only consider the difference in soil quality and do not consider the impact of special areas. In addition, the conclusions of scholar researches are differences, and not representative. With the development of underground engineering construction, the direction of principal stress of loess is no longer just vertical, and the study of loess anisotropy has become a key issue. Therefore, this study takes the loess near-fault area of the Lishan piedmont fault as the research object, the differences of shear strength parameters in different directions were studied by routine triaxial shear test. The results show that the anisotropy of loess in this area is obviously different, which is greater than that of loess in other sites. The difference mainly reflect in the cohesion. The cohesion of the sample of the θ=90° is 1.62 times that of the sample of the θ=0° about. The difference of saturated loess is decreases, and the difference of cohesion is about 30%. The results provide a reference for the construction of the underground engineering for this areas, the engineering construction should pay attention to the difference in the strength and deformation on different directions of the loess.