Standard Test Method for
Splitting Tensile Strength of Intact Rock Core Specimens1

This standard is issued under the fixed designation D 3967; the number immediately following the designation indicates the year of
original adoption or, in the case of revision, the year of last revision. A number in parentheses indicates the year of last reapproval. A
superscript epsilon (e) indicates an editorial change since the last revision or reapproval.

1. Scope

1.1 This test method covers testing apparatus, specimen
preparation, and testing procedures for determining the splitting tensile strength of rock by diametral line compression of a
disk.
NOTE 1—The tensile strength of rock determined by tests other than the
straight pull test is designated as the “indirect” tensile strength and,
specifically, the value obtained in Section 8 of this test is termed the
“splitting” tensile strength.

1.2 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the
standard.

1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the
safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the
responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.

2. Referenced Documents

2.1 ASTM Standards:
E 4 Practices for Force Verification of Testing Machines2
E 691–92 Practice for Conducting an Interlaboratory Study
to Determine the Precision of a Test Method3

3. Significance and Use

3.1 By definition the tensile strength is obtained by the
direct uniaxial tensile test. But the tensile test is difficult and
expensive for routine application. The splitting tensile test
appears to offer a desirable alternative, because it is much
simpler and inexpensive. Furthermore, engineers involved in
rock mechanics design usually deal with complicated stress
fields, including various combinations of compressive and
tensile stress fields. Under such conditions, the tensile strength
should be obtained with the presence of compressive stresses to
be representative of the field conditions. The splitting tensile
strength test is one of the simplest tests in which such stress
fields occur. Since it is widely used in practice, a uniform test
method is needed for data to be comparable. A uniform test is
also needed to insure positively that the disk specimens break
diametrally due to tensile pulling along the loading diameter.

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