Based on the compression mechanism for analyzing the cavity expansion problem in soil under high stresses,generalized non-linear failure criterion and large strain and energy conservation in plastic region dunng the cavity expanding were adopted.The energy conservation equation was established and the limited pressure of cavity expansion under high stresses was given based on the energy dissipation analysis method,in which the energy generated from cavity expansion is absorbed by the volume change and shear strain caused in soil.The factors of large strain and dilatation were considered by the proposed method.The analysis shows that the limited pressure is determined by failure criterion,stress state,large deformation characteristic,dilatation and strength of soil.It is shown from the comparison that the results with the proposed method approximate to those of the in-situ method.The cavity expansion pressure first decreases and then increases nonlinearly with both of shear modulus and dilatation increasing.