Abstract: The impact of sand ratio on silt property was investigated through compaction test (before SEM scanning), compression test, CBR test and unconfined compressive strength test on artificial silt with different sand ratios (10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%). Results indicated that 1) given the same sand ratio, the pore area of compacted silt samples declined at first and then increased with the growth of water content; given the same water content, the pore area of the samples also decreased at first and then increased with the increase of sand ratio, which agrees well with the variation of maximum dry density of the silt samples (increased first and then decreased with the increase of sand ratio); 2) as sand ratio and coarse grain content became larger, the CBR of silt increased with the increase of sand ratio; 3) for silt with the same sand ratio, unconfined compressive strength increased with the increase of compaction degree; but under the same compaction degree, unconfined compressive strength became smaller with the increase of sand ratio.

Key words: silt, sand ratio, compaction properties, pore area, CBR, unconfined compressive strength