Abstract：In the course of building the downstream standardization dike in Yellow River，the method of reinforcing dike with silt was adopted. By far，longitudinal cracks appear in the first stage project in Dongming of Shandong Province，which would endanger the safety of dike. It has huge complex impacts on dike body to reinforce dike with silt，and little study is carried out. There are no quantitative results about the forming cause of crack，so it is very difficult to prevent and deal with radically. By experiment on typical dike section，and theories and methods such as unsaturated seepage，liquid-solid coupling，soak deformation，finite element analysis and so on used to simulate the process of construction，the forming mechanism is analyzed and the main factors are discussed by analyzing several special working conditions. Study shows that the cracking course of dike body can be reflected by simulation；and the results are in accord with the fact. The main factors are reinforcing dike with silt，construction in high speed，soak deformation，poor drainage，stacking load at the tip of dike，impact of vehicle and so on. The results can provide references to building the standardization dike and similar projects.
