• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.269-282
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• 2015

In this paper, a compression to tensile load converter device was developed to determine the anisotropic tensile strength of concrete. The samples were made from a mixture of water, fine sand and cement, respectively. Concrete samples with a hole at its center was prepared and subjected to tensile loading using the compression to tensile load converter device. A hydraulic load cell applied compressive loading to converter device with a constant pressure of 0.02 MPa per second. Compressive loading was converted to tensile stress on the sample because of the overall test design. The samples have three different configurations related to loading axis; 0, $45^{\circ}$, $-45^{\circ}$. A series of finite element analysis were done to analyze the effect of hole diameter on stress concentration of the hole side along its horizontal axis to provide a suitable criterion for determining the real tensile strength of concrete. Concurrent with indirect tensile test, Brazilian test and three point loading test were also performed to compare the results from the three methods. Results obtained by this device were quite encouraging and show that the tensile strengths of concrete were similar in different directions because of the homogeneity of bonding between the concrete materials. Also, the indirect tensile strength was clearly lower than the Brazilian test strength and three point loading test.