Interactive Terrain Simulation and Force Distribution Models in Sand Piles

This paper presents an application of Cellular Automata in the field of dry Granular Systems modelling. While the study of granular systems is not a recent field, no efficient models exist, from a computational point of view, in classical methodologies. Some previous works showed that the use of Cellular Automata is suitable for the development of models that can be used in real time applications. This paper extends the existing Cellular Automata models in order to make them interactive. A model for the reaction to external forces and a pressure distribution model are presented and analyzed, with numerical examples and simulations.