Indirect Tensile Strength Test on Heterogeneous Rock Using Square Plate Sample with a Circular Hole

Abstract

An indirect testing method for determining the tensile strength of rock-like heterogeneous materials is proposed. The realistic failure process analysis method, which can consider material inhomogeneity, is applied to model the failure process of the square plate containing a circular hole under uniaxial compression. The influence of plate thickness and applied loads on the maximum tensile stress is investigated, and the tensile strength equation is deduced. Meanwhile, the initial cracking loads are obtained by the corresponding physical tests, and the tensile strengths are determined by substituting the initial cracking loads into the developed tensile strength equation. The values predicted by the newly proposed method are almost identical to those of the direct tensile tests. Furthermore, the proposed method can give the relatively small tensile strength error with the direct tensile test in comparison to the other test methods, which indicates that the proposed method is effective and valid for determining the tensile strength of rock-like heterogeneous materials.