ASTM International articles

An Interview with Philip Piqueira, Global Standards Leader for GE’s Industrial Solutions Business

General Electric participates in standards development through its work on numerous committees and organizations. Philip Piqueira discusses why this business strategy and its continuance is crucial for GE.

From your perspective as the global standards leader for General Electric’s Industrial Solutions business, would you discus

Providing Statistical Confidence to Pass

Q. Lots are released based on comparing test results from a sample to lot acceptance procedure criteria. If a set of test results meets the lot acceptance procedure criterion, how can I be assured that another sample from the lot would also pass the criterion?

A: Companies use lot acceptance procedures to release a lot. Test results from a sample are evaluated against lot acceptance procedure criteria,

My standards education began in 1990 when I became the chairman of an ASTM International task group. I was the group leader of R&D for a medical device manufacturer, recognized the need for a specific industry standard and felt that taking a leadership role in developing this standard would be a good professional development activity. The standard was eventually approved and I continue to serve as a subcommittee chairman.

As a member of the biomedical engineering faculty at Marque

The main thermodynamic forces active in the near field of a nuclear fuel waste multiple barrier system during the unsaturated stage are the gradients of temperature, fluid pressure, and chemical potentials. The processes that have a direct impact on the transport mechanism of heat and moisture within the clay-based compacted buffer material are coupled. The major problems in describing coupled heat and moisture flow (CHMF) in unsaturated swelling clay barriers are the lack of experimental data a

Many interface and sand-to-sand direct shear tests have been performed with a constant normal stiffness to investigate the effects of interface roughness, normal stiffness, soil relative density, initial normal stress, and cyclic displacement amplitude on the soilinterface response. It is demonstrated that the patterns of behavior in these tests are similar to those observed in model pile tests and that the constant normal stiffness (CNS) condition is required to account for the effects of the v

Described in this paper are test procedures and resulting data used in the laboratory to evaluate the absorption of water and the swelling pressures of several different mixtures of a particular acrylate grout when placed in situ. The water absorption characteristics were determined for both neat grout and grouted sand under conditions of either free swell or moderate confinement. Swelling pressures were assessed primarily by measuring the vertical stress required to prevent vertical swell under

Knowledge of the swell potential of expansive soil at the outset of an investigation can be helpful in avoiding possible damage to the structure. A review is presented of several methods that have been proposed to identify swell potential and test techniques, which are used to quantify the amount of swell. A site investigation was conducted to obtain hand-carved block specimens from a fresh excavation site near Al-Qatif, Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Laboratory tests were used to determine g

An internally instrumented, servo-controlled biaxial compression device is described for evaluating shear band formation in soils. Internally measured vertical and lateral soil displacements as well as lateral deformations of a very low friction bottom sled allow one to observe the progressive development of shear bands in a specimen. Anisotropically consolidated specimens of relatively insensitive, soft Chicago glacial clay were sheared under undrained conditions. Differences in responses based

Data were collected and reviewed pertaining to one-dimensional vertical free-swell tests performed on existing fill soils from various projects located in Southern California. The purpose of reviewing the data was to evaluate the effect of overburden pressure on the swelling potential of expansive soils. The swell tests were performed on relatively undisturbed specimens at the in-place moisture content and density under the actual overburden pressure. The data indicate that at an overburden pres

An experimental study has been conducted to study the swelling pressure behavior of expansive soil in both vertical and lateral directions simultaneously under controlled suction. A series of one-dimensional consolidation tests was carried out on compacted soil specimen using a newly developed oedometer with devices for controlling suction and measuring lateral pressure. The test results show that while both vertical swelling pressure and lateral pressure are path dependent, there are lower and