Different soil-water characteristic curves（SWCC）could be obtained by specimens reconstituted under the same condition of specimen preparation

and then specimens have different equilibrium saturation degrees at the same matrical suction.Hence

mechanical behavior of unsaturated specimen will be affected.In this paper

the pressure plate instrument was employed to obtain SWCC of four cutting ring specimens

and the direct shear test was performed to study their mechanical behavior.Results show that there are differences between SWCC

and SWCC is affected obviously by cutting ring because of its protective effect.Mechanical behavior of specimen is affected obviously by saturation degree.Specimens have bigger peak strength if their saturation degrees are lower

and they have nearly identical mechanical behavior if their saturation degrees are almost equal.The vertical displacement of specimens increase due to the tearing slit but it is not so for mechanical behavior of the samples

and peak strength of specimens is affected by the uneven failure surface.The phenomenon that differences of saturation degree appear repeatedly with the increasing matric suction is related to connectivity between specimen and ceramic plate.