Abstract
The current paper presents a new method for testing direct tensile strength of unsaturated geomaterials, guided by a method developed for concrete testing (Hannant et al. 1999). The developed equipment is used for measurement of direct tensile strength of unsaturated reactive basaltic clay soils and crushed rocks stabilized with cementitious additives. The tensile characteristics of soils were tested at water contents in excess of liquid limit and those close to optimum water content. Stabilized crushed rocks were tested at early and cured states after mixing. Full stress-strain characteristics were measured with the aid of precision transducers and electronic data acquisition. The equipment is capable of measuring tensile strengths of soil slurries (about 1 kPa), as well as cement stabilized crushed rocks (up to about 1 MPa).
