Cyclic flattened Brazilian disc tests for measuring the tensile fatigue properties of brittle rocks.

We propose a cyclic flattened Brazilian disc (FBD) testing method to measure the tensile fatigue properties of brittle rocks. Our method has obvious merits in its specimen preparation and experimental operation. Two parallel flattens are introduced in the disc specimen, which facilitate easily and uniformly loading the specimen without special loading devices required. Moreover, the contact regions between two flattens and loading planes barely change during the entire loading and unloading process, ensuring a consistent contact condition. With certain appropriate loading angles, this method guarantees that the very first breakage of the specimen occurs at the center of the disc, which is the prerequisite of the Brazilian-type indirect tensile tests. To demonstrate our new method, nine cyclic FBD tensile tests are conducted. The fatigue load-deformation characteristics of FBD specimens are revealed. The tensile fatigue lives of tested specimens are observed to increase with the increase in cyclic loading frequency. Our proposed method provides a convenient and reliable approach to indirectly measure the fatigue tensile properties of brittle rocks and other brittle solids subjected to cyclic tensile loadings.