Abstract: To extend the application of consolid system in loess soil improvement in China, this paper intend to verify that consolid system helps maintain a dry interior condition of loess soil. consolid system was mixed into remolded Q3 loess soil for laboratory tests including water drop penetration time test, flexible-wall permeability test, drying shrinkage test and soil-water characteristic curves(SWCCs) test, to investigate the water entrance ability, water permeability, and the dewatering ability of loess soil to different consolid system content. Test results show that, with the increasing proportion of consolid system in the modified soils, water repellency ability of the soils is sharply increased, much better than the soils modified with flyash, cement or lime. Permeability of modified loess soil is almost the same as the un-solidified loess soil, indicating that water flow capacity remains unchanged. Both of the moisture content in drying process and the soil-water characteristic curves(SWCCs) on the capillary action area of modified soils have little changed, indicating that dewatering ability of modified loess soil remains almost the same. These observations are consistent with scanning electron microscope(SEM) test and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) test results, that consolid system has little influence on volume content of big and middle pores. It is concluded that consolid system is benefit to maintain a dry interior condition in loess soil because it sharply increases the soil water repellency ability but has little variation on the original permeability and dewatering ability of the loess soil.

Key words: loess, consolid system, water entrance ability, water permeability, dewatering ability