A new ASTM International test method that provides standardization for a long-used test will aid in the use and evolution of geotextile bag technology.
The new standard, ASTM D7701, Test Method for Determining the Flow Rate of Water and Suspended Soils from a Geotextile Bag, was developed by Subcommittee D35.03 on Permeability and Filtration, part of ASTM International Committee D35 on Geosynthetics.
ASTM D7701 is based on a test that has been used extensively in the last 20 years, but which has not been standardized until now.
“ASTM D7701 will allow the end user of geotextile tubes to have an idea of the performance of a proposed geotextile when used in a geotextile tube,” says Robert Lozano, senior geotechnical engineer–corporate geosynthetic specialist, The Reinforced Earth Co., and a D35 member. “Without this test, a full-size trial becomes imperative, increasing costs and risk of selecting the wrong material, increasing the chance of release sediments or clogging the proposed geotextile while in a full-scale test.”
Lozano says that consultants, engineers, designers, owners and fabricators who wish to use geotextile tubes in dewatering slurries and coaster structures will be the primary users of ASTM D7701.
All interested parties, including design engineers, manufacturers and installers of geotextile tube, are welcome to join in the standards developing activities of D35.03.
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ASTM Committee D35 Next Meeting: 27–29 June 2012, June committee week, San Diego, Calif.
CONTACTS
Technical Contact: Robert Lozano
The Reinforced Earth Co.
+1 703 821 1175 ext. 242
lozanoreng@aol.com
ASTM Staff Contact: Jeffrey Adkins
+1 610 832 9738
jadkins@astm.org
ASTM PR Contact: Barbara Schindler
+1 610 832 9603
bschindl@astm.org
