Physics-based Surface Modeling using Quasi-Static Liquids

This paper presents a physics-based modeling approach for the creation of high quality surfaces for application in CAGD. Physics-based modeling is commonly used in animation and scientific modeling, and simulates realistic dynamic motion for computer graphics. We propose a physics-based modeling of liquid surface motion as a means to generate complex geometry. Regions of a model are defined to be in a solid phase and other parts are in a liquid phase. The liquid surface is mobile and moves in response to physics-based forces resulting in a smooth, minimum energy surface. The objects created by this method are referred to as Temporal Computational Objects (TCO’s) and provide a capability that is fully integrated with standard CAD, FEA and CAM utilities. We demonstrate the usefulness of the approach with a wide range of examples that produce high quality physics-based surface models that have been analyzed and fabricated.