Phylite is widely distributed in southwest of China. Factors such as groundwater

bedding

micro-pores and micro-cracks will weaken its mechanical properties to some extent

thus posing severe challenges to the stability of the related projects. Therefore

in this paper

based on Brazilian splitting test

the evolutions of the tensile strength

energy and failure forms of phyllite under the coupling effects of water

bedding and pore are studied. The results show that the tensile strength decreases gradually with the increase of moisture content

pore diameter and bedding angle. However

the tensile strength has different sensitivities to the changes of them

which is mainly reflected in that bedding angle is the most significant

pore diameter is the second

and moisture content is the least. The tensile strength shows obvious anisotropy under different beddings. The anisotropy of tensile strength increases with the increase of water content and pore diameter

and the rate of increase with water content is more significant. Moreover

the energy increases gradually with the increase of moisture content

pore diameter and bedding angle

which is consistent with the changes of tensile strength. Although the energy under different beddings also presents obvious anisotropy

its anisotropy degree is generally higher than that of the tensile strength under the same condition. The failure form of specimens is affected by pore size

bedding angle and moisture content

among which

the existence of hole mainly affects the crack initiation position

the size of pore mainly affects the crack initiation strength

the bedding angle mainly affects the crack propagation path

and the moisture content mainly affects the number of cracks. This research results are valuable for further understanding the tensile properties of rocks and improving the stability of geotechnical engineering.