Measurement of true tensile strength from Brazilian tensile strength laboratory tests

Brazilian tensile strength (BTS) testing in standard practice is a practical method to approximate tensile strength for rock core using the conversion of axial compressive vertical and diametral loading to horizontal tensile stress in the centre of the core disk. The method, however, routinely inflates tensile strength, using peak tensile stress calculated from the BTS, versus true tensile stress (TTS) from direct tensile strength (DTS) tests. This study presents a novel technique to measure TTS directly from the BTS test via the onset of nonlinearity in horizontal strain response. TTS is equivalent to the peak strength of a DTS test. While not yet standardized, the modification to achieve TTS measurements is to instrument the BTS specimen with a horizontal strain gauge on each flat side. Over 100 BTS specimens of varying lithologies were instrumented, tested, and analyzed to measure their TTS and compare to peak BTS. Results demonstrate the average measured TTS is 0.81BTS, 0.75BTS, 0.85BTS for granitoid, carbonate, and metamorphic rocks, respectively. This concurs with previous studies, validating the proposed novel TTS measurement method. We recommend measurement of TTS be adopted into standard practice for BTS laboratory testing to improve accuracy of tensile strength data in rock engineering design.