Abstract: Two series of drained tests with fixed principal stress axes and cyclic rotation of principal stress axes were conducted with a hollow cylinder apparatus at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.The inherent anisotropy of sands was investigated firstly through the shear tests with fixed principal stress axes.For the tests under the condition of cyclic rotation of principal stress axes,the magnitudes of three effective principal stresses were kept constant and only the principal stress axes rotated cyclically from 0° to 180° relative to vertical axis.The developments of four strain components and the volumetric strain with number of cycles,the relationship between shear stress and shear strain and the effects of deviatoric stress and effective mean normal stress were studied.