Abstract:

Some aeolian sandy soils in the Mu Us Desert area are collapsible, affecting engineering structural stability due to large settlements induced by plunges in its strength when exposed to water. Investigating the collapsibility of aeolian sandy soil in the Mu Us Desert is of great practical significance. This study focuses on the aeolian sandy soil at the southern edge of the Mu Us Desert. We conducted indoor collapse tests on undisturbed and remolded aeolian sandy soil samples collected from the southern edge of the Mu Us Desert. Through single-factor analysis, we explored the influencing factors of the collapsibility of aeolian sandy soil and their influence patterns. Results indicate the following: 1) The aeolian sand in the southern edge of the Mu Us Desert is slightly collapsible when exposed to water. 2) The collapsibility decreases rapidly as the dry density increases, and declines with an increase in moisture content, but rises with an increase in clay content, and first increases and then decreases as the test vertical pressure increases. 3) The boundary indicators for determining the collapsibility of the aeolian sand in the southern edge of the Mu Us Desert are a dry density of 1.5 g/cm³, a moisture content of 8%, and a relative density of 40.5%.

Key words: Mu Us Desert, aeolian sand soil, collapsibility characteristics, influencing factors, boundary indicators