Abstract: Loess is a type of soil with metastable structure. Due to the inhomogeneity, anisotropy, disturbance of in situ sampling and repeated variability of tests of undisturbed loess, how to manually prepare a structured loess that can more accurately reflect the mechanical properties of undisturbed loess is worth studying. Based on the existing methods of preparing structured soil by adding cement, lime and new rock and soil materials Roadyes to remolded loess, this study investigates the influence of different binders on the mechanical properties of artificial structured loess. The research results show that the structural strength of the structured soil prepared with Roadyes as the binders increases first and then decreases with the increase in Roadyes content, which is different from the characteristics that the shear strength of cement and lime increases continuously with the increase in the addition amount. Under different confining pressures, the evolution of the stress–strain curve of the structured soil prepared with Roadyes is more consistent with the mechanical properties of the undisturbed loess. The variation of shear strength of structured soil prepared with three binders can be divided into steep drop stage and stable stage with the change of water content. At the steep drop stage where the water content is less than the plastic limit, the shear strength decreases sharply, but changes slowly at the stable stage, which resembles the remolded soil. Different binders have little influence on the friction angle φ  of artificial structured loess, but have significant influence on the cohesion c. The research results are helpful to understand the soil mechanical properties changed by common binders, and also provide theoretical and technical guidance for the preparation of artificial structured loess with preset mechanical parameters.

Key words: artificial structured soil, binder, structural strength, stress–strain curve, shear strength