This practice is primarily intended for use by associations, third-party grading agencies, technical societies and other groups that develop national design standards and use recommendations for round timber piles.

This practice provides procedures for establishing compression parallel to grain and bending stresses for round timber piles including: sampling of material for testing; methods of test and property calculation procedures; distribution analysis of test data; procedures for determining adjustments for critical section location; pile oversize, load sharing and treatment; and procedures for deriving allowable stresses.

In using allowable stresses established under this practice, factors specific to each end use which may affect the performance of the pile system shall be considered by the designer. Such factors include the location of the critical section, the bearing capacity of the soil, the ability of the pile to withstand driving forces, the properties of the cap or load distributive element tying piles together and the loading and conditions of service.

1.1 This practice contains procedures for establishing allowable compression parallel to grain and bending stresses for round timbers used for piling, based on results from full-size tests.

Allowable stresses for compression perpendicular to grain and shear properties are established in accordance with the provisions of Practice D 2899.

1.2 Stresses established under this practice are applicable to piles conforming to the size, quality, straightness, spiral grain, knot, shake and split provisions of Specification D 25.

1.3 A commentary on the practice is available from ASTM International.

1.4 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.

This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.