How to classify sand types: A deep learning approach

Convolutional neural networks can satisfactorily classify multiple sand types. The Inception architecture outperforms the VGG and ResNet architectures in the classification task. Both particle shape and surface texture are the keys to improving the accuracy. While the identification of sand type helps naturally approximate physical and mechanical properties, it is challenging to judge sand types without prior information. This study attempts to identify the sand type in 2D grayscale images by using convolutional neural networks (CNNs).