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Record W4406878375 · doi:10.1016/j.trgeo.2025.101485

An iterative program to back-analyze grain-size distribution from a predetermined soil–water characteristic curve

2025· article· en· W4406878375 on OpenAlexafffund
Minh Nguyen, David Elwood

Bibliographic record

VenueTransportation Geotechnics · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldEngineering
TopicSoil and Unsaturated Flow
Canadian institutionsUniversity of Saskatchewan
FundersNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
KeywordsEnvironmental scienceDistribution (mathematics)Particle-size distributionSoil scienceGeotechnical engineeringMathematicsMaterials scienceGeologyMathematical analysisParticle size

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Numerous methods for predicting unsaturated soil properties based on basic soil parameters have been introduced to reduce the cost of unsaturated soil testing. This research proposes an unsaturated soil estimation program that uses a predetermined soil–water characteristic curve (SWCC) to predict the grain-size distribution (GSD) using computer iteration. The results indicate back-calculating a GSD from a given SWCC is possible, and that different GSDs can produce the same SWCC. A Monte Carlo approach examining variations of the GSD was conducted and associated packing porosities are provided. The program was tested on coarse- and fine-grained soils to determine the program’s capability and indicate it is appropriate for samples dominated by silty sand and silt but not clay. The back-analysis program described here could bypass the arduous testing phase of multiple soils to find a suitable SWCC for a capillary break layer as it can start with a predetermined SWCC and estimate a suitable GSD. In such efforts, the most important characteristic (i.e., strength or stiffness) of a soil must be determined when considering the GSD required because an infinite number of GSDs with similar properties could produce the same SWCC.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.001
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.004
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Simulation or modeling · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: none
Teacher disagreement score0.005
Threshold uncertainty score0.015

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0010.004
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.001
Bibliometrics0.0010.001
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0010.001
Open science0.0010.001
Research integrity0.0000.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0050.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.006
GPT teacher head0.233
Teacher spread0.228 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designSimulation or modeling
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations3
Published2025
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

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