A Combinatorial Parametric Engineering Model for Solid Freeform Fabrication

Fabricated parts are often represented as compact connected smooth 3-manifolds with boundary, where the boundaries consist of compact smooth 2-manifolds. This class of mathematical structures includes topological spaces with enclosed voids and tunnels. Useful information about these structures are coded into level functions (Morse functions) which map points in the 3-manifold onto their height above a fixed plane. By definition, Morse functions are smooth functions, all of whose critical points are nondegenerate. This information is presented by the Reeb graph construction that develops a topologically informative skeleton of the manifold whose nodes are the critical points of the Morse function and whose edges are associated with the connected components between critical slices. This approach accurately captures the SFF process: using a solid geometric model of the part, defining surface boundaries; selecting a part orientation; forming planar slices, decomposing the solid into a sequence of thin cross-sectional polyhedral layers; and then fabricating the part by producing the polyhedra by additive manufacturing. This note will define a qualitative and combinatorial parametric engineering model of the SFF part design process. The objects under study will be abstract simplicial complexes K with boundary ∂K. Systems of labeled 2-surfaces in K, called slices, will be associated with the cross-sectional polyhedral layers. The labeled slices are mapped into a family of digraph automata, which, unlike cellular automata, are defined not on regular lattices with simple connectivities (cells usually have either 4 or 8 cell neighborhoods) but on unrestricted digraphs whose connectivities are irregular and more complicated.Mechanical Engineerin

Efficient algorithm for computing all low s-t edge connectivities in directed graphs

LNCS v. 9235 entitled: Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science 2015: 40th International Symposium, MFCS 2015, Milan, Italy, August 24-28, 2015, Proceedings, Part 2Given a directed graph with n nodes and m edges, the (strong) edge connectivity λ (u; v) between two nodes u and v is the minimum number of edges whose deletion makes u and v not strongly connected. The problem of computing the edge connectivities between all pairs of nodes of a directed graph can be done in O(m ω) time by Cheung, Lau and Leung (FOCS 2011), where ω is the matrix multiplication factor (≈ 2:373), or in Õ (mn1:5) time using O(n) computations of max-flows by Cheng and Hu (IPCO 1990). We consider in this paper the “low edge connectivity” problem, which aims at computing the edge connectivities for the pairs of nodes (u; v) such that λ (u; v) ≤ k. While the undirected version of this problem was considered by Hariharan, Kavitha and Panigrahi (SODA 2007), who presented an algorithm with expected running time Õ (m+nk3), no algorithm better than computing all-pairs edge connectivities was proposed for directed graphs. We provide an algorithm that computes all low edge connectivities in O(kmn) time, improving the previous best result of O (min(m ω, mn1:5)) when k ≤ √ n. Our algorithm also computes a minimum u-v cut for each pair of nodes (u; v) with λ (u; v) ≤ k.postprin

Further topics in connectivity

Continuing the study of connectivity, initiated in §4.1 of the Handbook, we survey here some (sufficient) conditions under which a graph or digraph has a given connectivity or edge-connectivity. First, we describe results concerning maximal (vertex- or edge-) connectivity. Next, we deal with conditions for having (usually lower) bounds for the connectivity parameters. Finally, some other general connectivity measures, such as one instance of the so-called “conditional connectivity,” are considered. For unexplained terminology concerning connectivity, see §4.1.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

P-matrices and signed digraphs

We associate a signed digraph with a list of matrices whose dimensions permit them to be multiplied, and whose product is square. Cycles in this graph have a parity, that is, they are either even (termed e-cycles) or odd (termed o-cycles). The absence of e-cycles in the graph is shown to imply that the matrix product is a P0-matrix, i.e., all of its principal minors are nonnegative. Conversely, the presence of an e-cycle is shown to imply that there exists a list of matrices associated with the graph whose product fails to be a P0-matrix. The results generalise a number of previous results relating P- and P0-matrices to graphs