Tensile Testing of Soils: History, Equipment and Methodologies

Ausamah Al Houri, Ahed Habib, Ahmed Elzokra, Maan Habib

Abstract


Tensile strength of soil is indeed one of the important parameters to many civil engineering applications. It is related to wide range of cracks specially in places such as slops, embankment dams, retaining walls or landfills. Despite of the fact that tensile strength is usually presumed to be zero or negligible, its effect on the erosion and cracks development in soil is significant. Thus, to study the tensile strength and behavior of soil several techniques and devices were introduced. These testing methods are classified into direct and indirect ways depending on the loading conditions. The direct techniques including c-shaped mold and 8-shaped mold are in general complicated tests and require high accuracy as they are based on applying a uniaxial tension load directly to the specimen. On the other hand, the indirect tensile tests such as the Brazilian, flexure beam, double punch and hollow cylinder tests provide easy ways to assess the tensile strength of soil under controlled conditions. Although there are many studies in this topic the current state of the art lack of a detailed article that reviews these methodologies. Therefore, this paper is intended to summarize and compare available tests for investigating the tensile behavior of soils.


Keywords


Tensile Strength of Soils; Direct/ Indirect Tensile Test; Brittle Materials; Brazilian Tensile Test; Double Punch Test.

References


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DOI: 10.28991/cej-2020-03091494

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Copyright (c) 2020 Ausamah Abdul Munam AL Houri, Ahed Habib, Ahmed Elzokra, Maan Habib

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