Abstract
This paper describes the development of a direct tension apparatus and its application to test the tensile strength of unsaturated fine sands. The apparatus consists of two halves of wedge-shaped specimen molds. A criterion is developed for designing the inclination angle of the inner sidewall of the specimen molds as a function of soil–wall interface frictional angle and soil dilatancy angle. Tensile strength of unsaturated fine sands is measured over a range of dry density and water content. Results show that tensile strength generally increases with the increase in dry density. For relatively dense sand, tensile strength follows a non-monotonic double-peak pattern with increasing water content. The first peak occurs in the pendular regime and is attributed to peak occurrence of interparticle stress contributed by pendular water bridges. The second peak occurs in the capillary regime and is attributed to the capillary component of interparticle stress arising from negative pore pressure.
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