Characterizing Tensile Strength of Building Sandstone via Uniaxial Tensile, Compressive, and Flexural Bending Tests

Sandstone is widely used a construction and building material. However, its uniaxial tensile strength (UTS) is not adequately understood. To characterize the uniaxial tensile strength of natural sandstone, three groups of specimens were fabricated for four-point bending, uniaxial compressive, and tensile tests. To characterize the evolution of the stress–strain profiles obtained via these tests, representative expressions were developed in terms of normalized strain and strength. The magnitude of the uniaxial tensile strength exceeded that of the four-point bending strength, indicating that the uniaxial tensile strength cannot be represented by the four-point bending strength. The experimental ratio of uniaxial tensile and compression strength (33–41) was underestimated by the empirical expressions reported in the literature. The suggested correction coefficient for the FBS is 0.25. The compressive modulus (E(c)) was generally identical to the experimental results published in the literature, whereas the tensile modulus (E(t)) was overestimated. The experimental modular ratio, E(t)/E(c), ranged from 0.12 to 0.14; it was not sensitive to Poisson’s ratio, but it increased slightly with the compressive modulus. This work can serve as a reference for computing the load-bearing capacity of sandstone components under tension.