A bilinear strength formula for structured loess based on tensile strength and shear strength and its application

The shear strength and tensile strength are two aspects of the mechanics characteristics of structured soils. The tensile strength of structured loess is studied through experiments, then a bilinear strength formula for structured loess is obtained by combining the tensile strength with the shear strength according to the test results, which is applied into the stability analysis of structured loess slope by studying the failure stress modification algorithm of the tensile coupling with shear state. The research results show that the traditional Mohr-Coulomb strength formula will exaggerate the effect of tensile strength of structured soils, which leads to the exaggerated results in computation, while the computational results are too conservative regardless of the tensile strength of structured soils, thus the bilinear strength formula based on the tensile strength and shear strength can reasonably estimate the effect of the tensile strength of structured soils in fact.