Which property of soil does not depend on effective stress?

The property of soil that does not depend on effective stress is soil saturation. Effective stress refers to the stress carried by the soil skeleton and is central to understanding soil behavior under load. It directly influences properties such as soil compressibility and shear strength, which are critical in geotechnical engineering analyses.

Soil saturation, on the other hand, is a measure of how much of the pore space in the soil is filled with water. It is defined independently of the stresses acting on the soil particles. Saturation levels affect the pore water pressure and can impact effective stress, but they do not change with variations in effective stress itself. This is because saturation is concerned with the ratio of water to void spaces, not with the forces acting upon those spaces or the soil particles themselves.

Thus, while effective stress clearly plays a significant role in the other properties, soil saturation remains unaffected by it.