In the construction projects of ports and docks in coastal areas,the ground soil types formed by landfill are mostly coarse-grained mixture or sand-clay mixture,with high water content,large porosity,and high pore water salinity.In the construction projects of ports and docks in coastal areas,the foundation soil formed by hydraulic reclamation mostly consists of sand-clay mixtures with coexisting coarse and fine particles and discontinuous particle size gradation,which are characterized by high water content,large void ratio,and relatively high salinity of pore water.The deformation law of soft soil foundation is closely related to its compression characteristics.However,there is little research reported on the influence of sand content on the compression characteristics of saline soft clay.To address this problem,sand-clay mixtures with varying sand contents and pore water salinity levels are prepared.One-dimensional consolidation tests combined with numerical simulations are performed to investigate the effect of sand content on the compression characteristics of saline soft clay and reveal its micro-mechanism.The results indicate that the presence of both salt and sand reduces the compressibility of soft clay.A sudden inflection occurs on the compression curve when the consolidation stress approaches approximately 400 kPa.Numerical analysis reveals that banded stress zones emerge at this stress level,which demonstrates that a sand skeleton is formed inside the sand-bearing soft clay.Before the sand skeleton forms,pore water salinity affects compressibility by promoting the agglomeration of clay particles.Once formed,the sand skeleton bears the major load of sand-clay mixtures and further governs the compression performance.This study clarifies the action mechanism of salt and sand particles on the compressive behavior of soft clay.