Experimental investigation on tensile strength of hollow concrete blocks

In this paper, an experimental and statistical analysis was carried out from hollow concrete blocks. Firstly, 30 blocks were tested under compression force ( vertical -direction). After, 60 blocks were studied under the splitting test from ASTM–C–1006 and, later a direct tensile test was applied to other 60 blocks. The blocks, in the direct tensile test, were subjected to a tensile force in the horizontal directions (30 in each directions). For the direct tensile test, a special test procedure was developed. The results show that, independently of the test procedure applied (direct or splitting), the tensile strength has a significant statistical difference between both horizontal directions ( x and y ), evidencing the non–isotropy character from the hollow concrete blocks. Splitting method results was significantly smaller in the x –direction than by the direct method, contrary in the y –direction. A statistical analysis of parametric and non-parametric hypothesis tests was used to determine the significance levels between both test procedures. In addition, this article concludes with a discussion between the compressive and tensile strength relationships in the orthogonal directions of the hollow concrete blocks. Graphical abstract