Human-guided physics-constrained AI agents construct an auditable model of soil-plug evolution

Jie Shi, Yimin Lu, Zhongkun Ouyang

Engineering predictions require physical mechanisms to be translated consistently into equations, discretization, code, and validation, yet errors can propagate despite local checks. Artificial-intelligence (AI) agents automate scientific tasks, but coordinating and independently auditing the theory-to-solver process under physical constraints and human oversight remains unresolved. We introduce a human-in-the-loop, physics-constrained multi-agent workflow where human experts define admissible physics and modeling boundaries, while agents retrieve evidence, derive equations, implement solvers, and audit the theory-to-code chain. Applied to soil-plug evolution during suction-caisson installation, the workflow generated and audited 6 formulations in 2.9 h of agent execution once physical knowledge and inputs were prepared. Among these formulations, adding seepage-driven soil void-ratio evolution to the geometric baseline reduced mean absolute final-heave error from 58.4% to 9.0% across 14 profiles; the selected model further incorporated near-wall dilation and achieved mean absolute percentage errors of 12.4% across 9 final-state cases and 4.2% at the endpoints of 5 process…