Critique of CANDE/AASHTO Soil Groups

CANDE and AASHTO pipe design documents inappropriately group soil types that have greatly varying strength and compressibility properties leading to unnecessary design uncertainty. Most notably, fine-grained elastic silt (MH) is grouped with coarse-grained clayey gravel (GC). There are other groupings that also do not seem appropriate. A defensible design of buried pipe requires acceptable limits on uncertainty. The CANDE and AASHTO groups exhibit an unjustifiably broad range of soil behavior and therefore may often not result in designs of acceptable uncertainty. Additionally, the CANDE and AASHTO naming convention causes problems in referring to the soil groups by using redundant symbols. The inappropriate grouping of some of the soil classifications will be illustrated by comparing their engineering properties. An alternate grouping is proposed.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483619.005
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780784483619
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Howard, Amster
  • Gemperline, Mark
• Conference:
  • Pipelines 2021
  • Date: 2021-8-3 to 2021-8-6
• Publication Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Pagination: pp 39-48
• Monograph Title: Pipelines 2021: Design

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Classification; Pipe; Soil groups; Soils by grain size and distribution; Soils by properties; Uncertainty
• Identifier Terms: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; CANDE (Computer program)
• Subject Areas: Design; Geotechnology; Pipelines;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01780843
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780784483619
• Files: TRIS, ASCE
• Created Date: Aug 30 2021 2:50PM