Determination of uniaxial tensile strength of brittle materials using tubular samples

Abstract Tensile strength of brittle materials is usually obtained through Brazilian tests. It is accepted that failure is initiated at the centre of the sample and that it propagates through the material, creating a tensile failure plane along the vertical diameter or at the majority of it. Then, the tensile stress developed at the centre of the disc is considered as the tensile strength of the material tested. However, the stress state along the vertical diameter is always biaxial, even in the centre of the sample. This implies that the strength measured using such technique is not the uniaxial tensile strength. In this article, the expressions of the stress state supported by a tubular sample subjected to a novel device to determine the tensile strength of brittle materials are described. Besides, it is noticed that the failure plane contains points with the maximum uniaxial tensile strengths so the testing method is adequate to determine the uniaxial tensile strength of brittle materials.