A note on the direct determination of the confining pressure of cylindrical specimens

This note presents a simple approach to the direct determination of the confining pressure, q, for a cylindrical specimen encased in a metallic sleeve. The stress analysis of the problem shows that, for a pressure-insensitive material (e.g. metal), q is the quantity by which the stress level of the confined specimen is elevated with respect to the unconfined. As such, q is directly determined by comparing the results of two tests, one with and the second without confinement. For a pressure-sensitive material, q must be determined independently from a plastic stress analysis of the confining sleeve. Then, the same approach can be applied to determine the pressure sensitivity of the material. The present results greatly simplify testing of confined cylindrical specimens for both pressure-insensitive and sensitive materials.