ABSTRACT: Suffusion is a complex phenomenon which involves selective erosion of fine particles under the effect of seepage flow in the matrix of coarser particles. With the objective to characterize suffusion susceptibility, a series of downward seepage flow tests was realized with a triaxial erodimeter developed in our laboratory. Three different cohesionless soils were tested under controlled hydraulic gradient or under controlled flow rate. This study shows the significant effect of hydraulic loading history on the value of critical hydraulic gradient. Moreover, method characterizing the erosion susceptibility based on rate of erosion doesn’t lead to a unique characterization of suffusion process for different histories of hydraulic loading. The new analysis is based on energy expended by the seepage flow to characterize the hydraulic loading and the cumulative eroded dry mass to characterize the soil response. The results demonstrate that this approach is effective to characterize suffusion susceptibility for cohesionless soils.