Abstract: To study the shrinkage properties of expansive soils, recjarding expansive soils in Hefei as the study object, shrinkage tests on saturated soil samples with different initial dry densities are carried out. The relationship between the linear shrinkage ratio and water content（δ-w）and the relationship between void ratio and water content (e-w) are studied. Based on the results of curve fitting to shrinkage curves, the shrinkage limit, shrinkage coefficient, maximum linear shrinkage of expansive soils are calculated, and the relationship between fitting parameters and initial dry density is analyzed. The results show that the measurement of quality is simple and accurate, but it has some errors to volume in shrinkage tests. The shrinkage limit obtained by using the void ratio and water content curve-fitting method is compared with that obtained by the linear shrinkage ratio and water content curve fitting-method, and they are similar. Combining the shrinkage and suction test results, the soil-water characteristic curve expressed by the volumetric water content and considering the volume change is obtained.