4.1 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.

4.2 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.

4.3 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.