Instability of sand–silt mixtures

The instability of the sand–silt mixtures with different amount of fines contents were studied in this paper. It showed that the slope of the instability lines increases with the increasing relative densities, and it approaches the slope of the failure line (steady state line) at a high relative density. The relationship between the peak stress ratio and the intergranular void ratio can be described by a common curve for all the mixtures with fines contents less than the transitional fines content. There may also exist a unique curve for the relationship between the peak stress ratio and interfine void ratio for the mixtures with fines contents higher than the transitional fines content. If the yield strength ratio is used instead of the peak stress ratio, the relationships can be characterized in the same way.