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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Built Environ.

Sec. Geotechnical Engineering

Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1674281

This article is part of the Research TopicInterdisciplinary Research in Geotechnical Engineering and Earth Building MaterialsView all articles

Soil-Water Characteristics Curve and Permeability Function of Concrete Waste

Provisionally accepted
Fathiyah Hakim  SagitaningrumFathiyah Hakim Sagitaningrum1Abdul Halim  HamdanyAbdul Halim Hamdany1Glenn Adriel  AdigunaGlenn Adriel Adiguna2Martin  WijayaMartin Wijaya2Widjojo Adi  PrakosoWidjojo Adi Prakoso1Wiwik  RahayuWiwik Rahayu1Eriko  DewanggaEriko Dewangga3Alfrendo  SatyanagaAlfrendo Satyanaga3*
  • 1Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia
  • 2Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Bandung, Indonesia
  • 3Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and permeability function are critical parameters for understanding hydraulic behavior of unsaturated soils and are increasingly relevant in evaluating alternative materials for geotechnical and environmental applications. While recycled materials like concrete waste hold promise as substitutes for natural soil, limited research has been conducted to characterize their unsaturated hydraulic properties. In particular, previous studies have largely overlooked the influence of grain size distribution on the SWCC and permeability of concrete waste, resulting in a gap in data necessary for practical application. This study addresses that gap by directly measuring the SWCC and saturated permeability (ks) of concrete waste with varying grain size distributions—a novel approach not widely explored in earlier research. The SWCC was determined using a Tempe cell, and saturated permeability was measured using a constant head test. Results showed that three of the five samples exhibited relatively low ks values, while the remaining two displayed significantly higher permeability. In terms of saturated volumetric water content, poorly graded sand demonstrated a greater capacity to retain water, whereas sandy gravel and well-graded sand had much lower water retention, indicating poor drainage. These findings reveal that the hydraulic behavior of concrete waste is highly variable and dependent on its particle size composition and internal structure. By providing new empirical data, this study contributes original insights into the feasibility of using concrete waste as an engineered fill or barrier material in soil-related applications, where understanding unsaturated hydraulic properties is essential for modeling groundwater flow and assessing environmental impact.

Keywords: concrete, waste, Hydraulic properties, Permeability function, Soil-water characteristics curve, Unsaturated soil

Received: 27 Jul 2025; Accepted: 03 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Sagitaningrum, Hamdany, Adiguna, Wijaya, Prakoso, Rahayu, Dewangga and Satyanaga. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Alfrendo Satyanaga, alfrendo.satyanaga@nu.edu.kz

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