The pore structure and water retention capacity of soils are significantly affected by the cyclic drying-wetting and stress history. To further study the coupling actions of the two factors

water content variation tests were carried out following two different loading paths

i.e.

the drying-wetting cycles after vertical consolidation

and the vertical loading-unloading cycles after the air-dried process. The variation tendencies of the water retention capacity and deformation behaviors of soil specimens were explored. The results indicated that the water retention capacity of soil during drying process is significantly different from that during wetting process

and the difference gap tends to decrease with increasing the consolidation pressure. With the increase in the number of drying-wetting cycles

the air-entry values increase while the slopes of the drying phase and wetting phase decrease. These changing tendencies are less significant upon more drying-wetting cycles. As for the soil specimens with different degrees of saturation

with the increase in the pore air pressure

the pre-consolidation pressures of soils are augmented

whereas the areas of hysteresis loop decrease

and hence resulting in decrease in the water retention capacities and deformation. The identical stress states can be reached from two different paths. It was found that the volumetric shrinkage is higher for the soil specimens following the path of drying process after consolidation

and the water retention capacities are lower for the soil specimens following the path of loading after air-dried process.