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Soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) is widely known as the relationship between matric suction and water content. It is used as a tool to determine the hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils and to predict soil water storage. Direct measurement is difficult and time-consuming. Many empirical models have been developed to represent SWCC. The objective of this study is to validate the Van Genuchten and Fredlund and Xing models. The SWCC was obtained from pressure plate tests for different soil gradations of mining tailing sand samples taken from Kuala Trong, Taiping, Perak, Malaysia. The results presented include moisture content and degree of saturation versus matric suction. The constructed SWCCs were fitted using the Van Genuchten and Fredlund and Xing equations, and the behaviour of the parameters analysed and discussed. The study found that this method is good for the SWCC for mining tailing sand, and that SWCC is greatly affected by initial water content and the grain size of the sample.

Waste tyre caused disposal problem in country all over the world. A lot of research has been done to make use of recycled tyre rubber to minimize waste tyre disposal problem. Recycled tyre rubber has been widely used for civil engineering application such as lightweight concrete and asphalt pavement. However only a few study focused on the development of material using recycled tyre rubber as drainage material for geotechnical purposes. This paper presents the experimental on properties of cement-based material consisting recycled tyre rubber. Specimens were prepared by incorporating different percentage of shredded rubber tyre with mortar. Summation of ten (10) mixes has been investigated to determine the compressive strength, density, porosity and water absorption. From the results, it is concluded that the higher percentage of shredded tyre rubber used, will decreased the compressive strength and increased the porosity and of the material.

Slope failure is a vital issue in civil engineering infrastructures. Besides, climate change implications made this problem more critical. Therefore, in this study, a railway embankment’s slope stability has been studied in saturated and unsaturated conditions. The soil sample was collected from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru. The necessary and required data obtained through lab experiments. The obtained data from lab experiments then used in Seep/W and Slope/W to model the railway embankment numerically. The results obtained from this study indicate that rainfall infiltration plays a vital role in the safety factor value. The obtained results also depicted that both rainfall intensity and duration play an important role in slope stability. The factor of safety showed a declining pattern with increasing rainfall and duration of rainfall. The safety factor decrement occurred since the matric suction was reduced (negative pore water pressure) by rainfall infiltration. Besides, the safety factor decrease was more acute when train load was applied in a rainy period. Thus, it is suggested that in a long period of rainy time, the railway authorities should stop the train operation, or the embankment stability should be increased using some stabilizations methods in the planning and designing stage.

Most of the rice husk is disposed with no further concern and this has caused waste disposal problems. Burning rice husk can cause health and environmental problem. Rice husk ash has been widely used for concrete technology application as additive in concrete mixture. However there is lack of study on the usage of raw rice husk. This paper presents the experimental on the properties of cement mortar consisting raw rice husk which focused on the porosity and density. Specimens were prepared by incorporating different percentage of rice husk with mortar. Summation of 10 mixes has been investigated to determine the compressive strength, density, porosity and water absorption. As the main purpose of the rice husk cement mortar is for drainage material, the main characteristics needed are porosity and lightweight. From the results, it is concluded that the higher percentage of rice husk used, will decreased the compressive strength and density and increased the porosity of rice husk cement mortar.