ASTM D3213-13
Standard Practices for Handling, Storing, and Preparing Soft Intact Marine Soil

Standard No.

ASTM D3213-13

Release Date

2013

Published By

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)

Status

Be replaced

Replace By

ASTM D3213-13e1

Latest

ASTM D3213-19

Scope

5.1 Disturbance imparted to sediments after sampling can significantly affect some geotechnical properties. Careful practices need to be followed to minimize soil fabric changes caused from handling, storing, and preparing sediment specimens for testing.

Note 1—The quality of the result produced by this standard is dependent on the competence of the personnel performing it, and the suitability of the equipment and facilities used. Agencies that meet the criteria of Practice D3740 are generally considered capable of competent and objective testing/sampling/inspection, etc. Users of this standard are cautioned that compliance with Practice D3740 does not in itself assure reliable results. Reliable results depend on may factors; Practice D3740 provides a means of evaluating some of those factors.

5.2 The practices presented in this document should be used with soil that has a very soft or soft shear strength (undrained shear strength less than 25 kPa (3.6 psi)) consistency.

Note 2—Some soils that are obtained at or just below the seafloor quickly deform under their own weight if left unsupported. This type of behavior presents special problems for some types of testing. Special handling and preparation procedures are required under those circumstances. Test are sometimes performed at sea to minimize the effect of storage time and handling on soil properties. An undrained shear strength of less than 25 kPa was selected based on Terzaghi and Peck.³ They defined a very soft saturated clay as having undrained shear strength less than 25 kPa.

5.3 These practices shall apply to specimens of naturally formed marine soil (that may or may not be fragile or highly sensitive) that will be used for density determination, consolidation, permeability testing or shear strength testing with or without stress-strain properties and volume change measurements (see Note 3). In addition, dynamic and cyclic testing can also be performed on the sample.

Note 3—To help evaluate disturbance, X-Ray Radiography has proven helpful, refer to Practice D4452.

5.4 These practices apply to fine-grained soils that do not allow the rapid drainage of pore water. Although many of the procedures can apply to coarser-grained soils, drainage may occur rapidly enough to warrant special handling procedures not covered in these practices.

5.5 These practices apply primarily to soil specimens that are obtained in thin-walled or similar coring devices that produce high-quality cores or that are obtained by pushing a thin-walled tube into cores taken with another sampling device.

5.6 These practices can be used in conjunction with soils containing gas, however, more specialized procedures and equipment that are not covered in these practices have been developed for use with such materials.

Note 4—For information on handling gas charged sediments, the reader is referred to papers by Johns, et al.,⁴ and Lee.⁵