To investigate the effect of initial effective consolidation stress

void ratio e

and fines content FC on the small-strain shear modulus of saturated sandy soils

a series of isotropically consolidated bender element tests is performed on three saturated sandy soils with various physical properties. The test results show that the stress exponent n

reflecting the rate of increment due to the enhancement of

presents a soil-specific constant

and there is a good exponential correlation between n and the synthesizing grain size distribution parameter of sandy soils. Fitting parameter A of Hardin model decreases as FC increases

and an exponential correlation is found. But there is no obvious single correlation between fitted parameter d and FC. Combined with the test data of of three saturated sandy soils in the literature

it is found that the stress-corrected small-strain shear modulus /( /Pa)n for different types of sandy soils decreases monotonically with the increase of the equivalent skeleton void ratio

and a good power relationship between /( /Pa)n and is then obtained. Generalized Hardin model that allows unified characterization of values for different types of sandy soils with various

e and FC is established based on binary medium model.