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Abstract  This paper reports an experimental investigation into the inherent anisotropy and particle breakage of natural Aqaba sand. The natural sand specimens were subjected to one dimensional compression to induce breakage. The grain size distributions of the specimens were obtained before and after the application of the stresses. Thereafter, the sand shear strength parameters were assessed using direct shear box tests. The results indicate that peak shear strength parameters show little decrease with increasing particle breakage. However, the dilatancy component of the shear strength diminishes with increasing particle breakage and a considerable amount of dilation occurs on samples with a higher bedding plane, regardless of the extent of particle breakage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]