Abstract: Based on the increasingly understanding of the engineering properties of typical sandy soils, the empirical relationship between the Standard Penetration Test (SPT) N values and the shear strength indices is proposed. The proposed relationship was compared with the results of current design code recommended formula as well as the previous proposed relationship. The comparative results indicate that, compared with the proposed relationship, conservative design is usually obtained from both code recommended and previous recommended relationships when it is applied into the typical sandy soils. The design values could be slightly improved by applying the proposed empirical recommendations. The empirical formula for the cohesion shows that the cohesion of sandy soils and the SPT N values are reversely correlated. The empirical formula for the internal friction angle has a slight improvement in the accuracy of the results compared with the Peck and other three models. The proposed relationship provides a new approach for the evaluation of shear strength indies of the sandy soils in the studied site, and potentially saves the construction cost.

Key words: sandy soils, standard penetration test, shear strength indices, correlation analysis