Direct tension experiments on compacted granular materials

The objective of this experiment is to determine the level of tensile strength of uncemented, dry, granular materials. The experimental apparatus does not lend itself to a direct measurement of the material's tensile strength, but must be analyzed as a stress field problem in order to arrive at a tensile strength value. The experiment, and subsequent analysis, serve to instruct the student on the influence of gravitationally induced stresses in frictional granular materials, the importance and difficulty of accurately describing the entire failure envelope for granular materials in the low mean stress range, and the fundamental principles of material modeling.