New Statistical Approach for Water Content Determination in Shallow Geological Environment

Abstract

A further-developed factor analysis method is presented to estimate water content in shallow subsurface sediments. Resistivity, natural gamma-ray, neutron-thermal neutron and density logs recorded by cone penetration tools are processed simultaneously to estimate the vertical variations of factor scores along a penetration hole. After the phase of factor analysis, regression tests are performed to relate the factor variables to petrophysical parameters of subsoils. In this study, a strong linear relationship is detected between the water volume and the first statistical factor. The new factor analysis procedure is based on the iterative reweighting of data prediction errors using the highly robust most frequent value method, which improves the estimation accuracy of factor scores in case of non-Gaussian data sets.

Unified Plasticity Potential of Soils

“…Considering these, the following studies were achieved by integrating the factor analysis as the main methodology. For example, the prediction of the desired soil properties was demonstrated by Szabo [31], Szabo et al [32], and Balogh [33] who developed a statistical model by using the factor analysis to predict dry density, water saturation, and water content of soil stratum, respectively. Kariuki and Meer [34] investigated the ways and effectiveness of the remote measurement of swelling potential of soils using factor analysis.…”