Abstract Shear strength (τ) analysis has received considerable attention, because of its importance when designing various geotechnical structures, such as tunnels, retaining walls, shallow foundations, and slopes. Predicting the unsaturated τ from water retention curves (WRCs) is an existing method. The validity of this method for the prediction of unsaturated τ over a wide suction (ψ) range has been discussed by several researchers. However, the existing method ignores the influence of void ratio (e), which plays a strong part in the water holding capacity and the τ analysis of unsaturated soils. Therefore, according to an existing WRC equation that distinguishes capillary water and adsorbed water, a new WRC equation was proposed to consider the effect of e on the water holding capacity. In addition, using the e dependent WRC, a new method that predicted the τ of unsaturated silts or silty clays at various e over a wide ψ range (that included the residual zone) was proposed. The prediction of τ by the proposed method produced better predictions for experimental data than that of the existing method.
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