Research on the collapsibility of loess after water immersion

A previous study (Meng et al. in Water 12(9):2388, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12092388 ) analysed and studied the law of water infiltration in loess. As a continuation of prior research, this paper will further study the collapsible settlement characteristics of loess. The collapsibility of loess means that after water infiltrates into the pores between the loess particles, it destroys the original pore structure of loess and causes the strength of loess to rapidly decrease. Under the action of its own gravity loads and the gravity loads of water, the phenomenon of overall settlement and collapse appears. This paper monitored the settlement law of loess over time through shallow and deep punctuations buried in loess, which results in daily settlement and 65 d cumulative settlement. Then, the gravity load of the water in the infiltrated loess was calculated and compared with the gravity load of the loess. Finally, based on the test data, the sensitivities of the loess collapsibility coefficient and self-weight collapsibility coefficient to loess parameters were analysed. The research in this paper provides the experimental basis for related studies.