Comparison of Test Methods for Determining the Tensile Strength of Soil and Weak Rocks

Tensile strength is a key parameter governing tensile cracking and subsequent failure of soil or rock mass. Existing methods for measuring are mainly designed hard materials come with inherent problems. As such, they continuously being adapted improved by the scientific community. In line this effort, we recently developed two new test application to weak rocks, namely, inner hole fracturing (IHFT) horizontal compression (HCT). study, compared performance these newly three most commonly used approaches determination, uniaxial direct (UDTT), Brazilian (BT) three-point bending (TPBT). Results show that IHFT HCT exhibit distinct advantages over conventional when testing rocks: first, can overcome eccentric force problem main challenge in UDTT BT, second, results obtained from tests highly reproducible stable. Between HCT, latter found more suitable routine laboratory because simpler easier procedure, stable reliable uniform stress distribution within specimens.