Aimed at the characteristics of aeolian sand under rapid construction conditions in desert geotechnical engineering, a series of the true triaxial undrained test were carried out on the GDS apparatus. The 3D deformation, failure, and other characteristics of the dense sand are obtained. Under the condition of same p c , the state transition point where the void water pressure changes from increasing to decreasing appears earlier and leads to enhanced dilatancy with the increase of b, which means the enhanced dilatancy of dense sand caused the increase in strength. The results of the same b shows that the void water pressure generally indicates a decrease at low confining pressure and an increase at high confining pressure, indicating that the aeolian sand shows dilatancy at low confining pressure and contraction at high confining pressure. The state transition point increases with the increase of p c , but all points tend to the same critical state line and state transition line. When b = 0, the critical state line is q = 1.57 p ′ , and the state transition line is q = 1.23 p ′ . When b = 1, the critical state line is q = 1.24 p ′ , and the state transition line is q = 1.04 p ′ . The results at same b obtained the unified critical state line and the state transition line. Therefore, the true triaxial test can obtain the unified relationship of void ratio, p c and b, which overcomes the fact that the existing test cannot consider the influence of b. The test results provide a basis data for the design, construction, and maintenance of geotechnical engineering in Tengger Desert.

In this paper, the true triaxial drainage shear tests were carried out for the Tengger Desert Sand under different intermediate principal stress coefficients by the British GDS dynamic and static true triaxial test system. The influence of intermediate principal stress on the deformation and failure of Tengger Desert Sand and the evolution of deviatoric stress and volumetric strain with intermediate principal stress coefficient were studied. The following results were found. The intermediate principal stress had a great influence on the Tengger Desert Sand deformation. With the increase of the principal stress coefficient, deviatoric stress increases first and then remains approximately unchanged, volumetric strain increases.

In order to better simulated the anisotropy of granular materials, the anisotropic state variable was introduced into the micropolar hypoplastic constitutive model, and the simulation of biaxial compression tests were carried out. The influences of fabric on the width and inclination of the shear band were studied by the FEM and DEM. The following results were found. With the increase of anisotropic state variables, at the same vertical strain, the width and inclination of the shear band remained basically unchanged and the element rotation angle at the same position was increased.

To quantitatively describe the influence of the contact characteristics of granular materials on their mechanical response, the true-triaxial tests with different particle shapes are simulated by the discrete element method (DEM), and the connection between the evolutions of particle contact fabric and the anisotropic mechanical responses is studied. The contact normal vector of the particle in 3D space is described by two independent angles, by which the contact fabric tensor is defined. The amplitude parameters in three orthogonal directions are defined by the invariants of the plane fabric tensor, which are scalars and describe the degree of anisotropy of the contact fabric in each plane. The expression of orthotropic fabric tensor is derived from the amplitude parameters, with the change of geometric space of contact normal vector, which is reduced to the different tensor of transverse isotropic naturally. The fabric tensor can be directly applied to the constitutive equation to describe the effects of the particle contact on the mechanical response. For verifying the rationality of contact characteristics described by fabric tensor, four particle shapes are clumped by PFC3D. The mechanical properties of specimens with different particles are simulated under the true-triaxial loading path, and the data of contact normal vector is extracted in real time. The simulation results showed that the particle shapes have a significant effect on the 3D stress-strain relationship and strength, which showed apparent anisotropy, and the invariants of fabric tensor can be used to describe the evolution of particle contact in the loading process.