About¶

Development¶

numgeo-ACT is developed by Jan Machaček, who is the main developer and maintainer of the software. numgeo-ACT grew out of research on the automatic calibration of advanced constitutive models for soils and is built around the numgeo finite-element framework and the DEEM optimization algorithm.

Contact

Jan Machaček — jan.machacek@tu-darmstadt.de
Project page: numgeo.de/automatic-calibration

Contributors¶

The development and application of numgeo-ACT has benefited from the contributions of many colleagues and co-authors, including (in alphabetical order):

Lucian Canales Brenlla, Ruhr-University Bochum
Frederik Brosz, TU Darmstadt
Merita Tafili, Ruhr-University Bochum
Mahdi Taiebat, University of British Columbia
Sheng Zeng, University of British Columbia

Their work — through joint publications, model implementations and applications to challenging boundary-value problems — has shaped the tool into what it is today. See the References page for the associated publications.

Acknowledgements¶

numgeo-ACT relies on the open scientific Python ecosystem — including NumPy, SciPy, pandas, openpyxl and matplotlib — and on the numgeo solver for all element-test simulations.

How to cite¶

I'd love to hear from you

If you use numgeo-ACT, I would be glad to hear about your experience — what you calibrated, what worked well, and where it could be better. If the tool was useful, I would be happy if you cited the following works:

Machaček, J., Staubach, P., Grandas Tavera, C. E., Wichtmann, T. & Zachert, H. (2022). On the automatic parameter calibration of a hypoplastic soil model. Acta Geotechnica, 17(11), 5253–5273. doi:10.1007/s11440-022-01669-4
Machaček, J., Siegel, S., Staubach, P. & Zachert, H. (2023). Automatic Parameter Calibration of Two Advanced Constitutive Models. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, 288, Springer.
Machaček, J., Zeng, S. & Taiebat, M. (2025). Enhancing accuracy and efficiency in cyclic liquefaction modeling: An automatic calibration framework for advanced constitutive models. Computers and Geotechnics, 183, 107208.
Zeng, S., Machaček, J., Moshfeghi, S. & Taiebat, M. (2026). Data strategies for automatic calibration of soil constitutive models. Computers and Geotechnics.

And — if your project allows it — it would be great if you could share your calibration outcomes: the resulting parameters and the comparison plots. This helps build a shared picture of how the models perform across soils and laboratories. Please get in touch at jan.machacek@tu-darmstadt.de.

A full list of works in which numgeo-ACT has been applied by our group is given on the References page.

License & availability¶

numgeo-ACT is not yet freely available; release to the wider community is planned in the medium term. In the meantime, our group offers a free calibration service — see Installation & requirements or contact the developer above.