In many geotechnical problems, direct shear tests are used to evaluate the shear strength properties of geomaterials in order to obtain design parameters .In order to investigate the effect of scale factor on shear strength of granular soils, several researches were done previously but hereunto no similar studies have been done on sands with different silt percentages. This paper presents an experimental study on the effects of shear box size on shear strength properties of silty sands. For this purpose Firuzkuh standard sand with angular-shaped particles is used. Three different silt percentages (10%, 20% and 30%) are added into the pure Firuzkuh sand and specimens are prepared at their maximum dry densities with their optimum moisture content. Direct shear tests are performed with three different shear box sizes (6060 mm, 100100 mm and 300300 mm). Results indicate that the peak shear strength and the peak friction angle decreases with increasing in the shear box size, while residual shear strength is constant. Also increasing in the silt percentages caused decrease in the peak shear strength. Results show that reduction rate of friction angle with increasing in the box sizes decreases with increasing in the silt percentages.

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