Formation of artificial collapsible loess

This paper will present work over recent years, which has aimed to develop a reproducible collapsible loess sample in the laboratory. The idea was to create specimens that not only reproduce the degree of loess collapse found in the field, but did so repeatably, thereby allowing the various bond components and their relative contributions to be assessed. This paper will show how a global benchmark loess sample can be produced, how it behaves under loading and wetting. Inevitably there are differences that occur between a newly deposited sample and one that has existed for many thousands of years, and in passing how collapse of samples from across the world compare. Copyright ASCE 2007.