Subsurface perforated drain pipes are wrapped with circular-knit geotextile fabric to prevent them from filling with sand or sediment. A cost and time saver used in golf courses, highways, and agricultural fields, circular-knit geotextile is applied to pipes eliminating the need to wrap an entire trench. Not a new application, the stretchable, seamless fabric has been used in drainage applications for 25 years but not specified as a separate consensus standard. On August 10, ASTM Committee D35 on Geotextiles approved D 6707, Standard Specification for Circular-Knit Geotextile for Use in Subsurface Drainage Applications.

The standard was developed by an ASTM task group of geotextile and corrugated-pipe manufacturers, testers, and U.S. Department of Transportation personnel. Task group chairman John C. Knip said the standard will offer consistency to design engineers and specifers, assuring the product specified will meet those standards. The test procedures and recommendations in the standard can be used to determine the acceptable performance properties of circular-knit geotextiles for acceptance testing.

For further technical information, contact John C. Knip, director of Operations, Carriff Corporation Inc., Midland, N.C. (phone: 704/888-3330). Committee D35 meets Jan. 21-24 in Dallas, Texas. For meeting or membership details, contact Pat Picariello, manager, Technical Committee Operations, ASTM (phone: 610/832-9720). //

Copyright 2001, ASTM