Abstract: In order to measure the repose angle of the coarse-grained soils accurately and easily, an apparatus based on rotatable-vessel method is described in this paper. 15 tests with different gradations were carried out on two kinds of coarse-grained soils with the proposed apparatus, respectively. The influences that the particle shape and gradation have on the repose angles of coarse-grained soils are investigated. The results show that for soils with the same gradation, the repose angles of gravel with angular particles are higher than those of the cobble with smooth particles, and the average repose angles of gravel are 1.3°~2.0°higher than those of cobble with different maximum grain sizes. For soils with the same shape, the angles of repose increase with the increase of the maximum particle size. When the maximum particle size equals 20~ 40 mm, the average repose angles increase slowly, while the increasing rate increases with the maximum particle size of 40~ 60 mm. The repose angles decrease with the increase of the mean particle size and increase with the increase of the non-uniform coefficient.