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Abstract The paraffin oil method was proposed and conducted to determine the soil shrinkage characteristic curves(SSCC) for understanding the desiccation behavior of the wet surface of ancient earthen architectures. Test data and the model fitting results show that paraffin oil method is more accurate than the traditional methods. This study indicated that the soil paste shrink vertically at the primary dryings stage by gravity and then came to three- dimensional shrinkage with the further evaporation of the soil water. It was found that the measured SSCC was slightly shifted upward from the theoretical 1∶1 saturated line，which can be attributed to the air contained in the isolated micropores. Results of test also indicated that the shrinkage limits of the three silt soils were 1.1%，1.4% and 1.8% lower than the corresponding plastic limit，which was determined mainly by the clay content and the type of clay minerals.
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Received: 02 September 2009
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