Adaptive approximation of signed distance fields through piecewise continuous interpolation

In this paper, we present an adaptive structure to represent a signed distance field through trilinear or tricubic interpolation of values, and derivatives, that allows for fast querying of the field. We also provide a method to decide when to subdivide a node to achieve a provided threshold error. Both the numerical error control, and the values needed to build the interpolants, require the evaluation of the input field. Still, both are designed to minimize the total number of evaluations. C0 continuity is guaranteed for both the trilinear and tricubic version of the algorithm. Furthermore, we describe how to preserve C1 continuity between nodes of different levels when using a tricubic interpolant, and provide a proof that this property is maintained. Finally, we illustrate the usage of our approach in several applications, including direct rendering using sphere marching.This work has been partially funded by Ministeri de Ciència i Innovació (MICIN), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and the Fons Europeu de Desenvolupament Regional (FEDER) (project PID2021-122136OB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE). The first author gratefully acknowledges the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and Banco Santander for the financial support of his predoctoral grant FPI-UPC grant.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Triangle influence supersets for fast distance computation

We present an acceleration structure to efficiently query the Signed Distance Field (SDF) of volumes represented by trianglemeshes. The method is based on a discretization of space. In each node, we store the triangles defining the SDF behaviour inthat region. Consequently, we reduce the cost of the nearest triangle search, prioritizing query performance, while avoidingapproximations of the field. We propose a method to conservatively compute the set of triangles influencing each node. Given anode, each triangle defines a region of space such that all points inside it are closer to a point in the node than the triangle is.This property is used to build the SDF acceleration structure. We do not need to explicitly compute these regions, which is crucialto the performance of our approach. We prove the correctness of the proposed method and compare it to similar approaches,confirming that our method produces faster query times than other exact methods.This work has been partially funded by Ministeri de Ciència i Innovació (MICIN), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and the Fons Europeu de Desenvolupament Regional (FEDER) (project PID2021-122136OB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE). The first author gratefully acknowledges the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and Banco Santander for the financial support of his predoctoral grant FPI-UPC grant.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

hp-FEM for Two-component Flows with Applications in Optofluidics

This thesis is concerned with the application of hp-adaptive finite element methods to a mathematical model of immiscible two-component flows. With the aim of simulating the flow processes in microfluidic optical devices based on liquid-liquid interfaces, we couple the time-dependent incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with a level set method to describe the flow of the fluids and the evolution of the interface between them

Efficient discretization of signed distance fields

A Signed distance field (SDF) is an implicit function that returns the distance to the surface of a volume given a point in the space. The sign of the field indicates if the point is inside or outside the volume. These fields are usually used to accelerate computer graphics algorithms in different areas, such as rendering or collision detection. There are many well-defined primitives and operators to model objects using these functions. For example, SDFs allow applying smooth boolean operations between primitives. Applying these operators to triangles meshes can require complex algorithms susceptible to precision problems. Even though SDFs allow modelling objects, they currently are not a used format, and not many modelling tools use it. Most of the time, we want to calculate this field from triangle meshes. If the mesh is two-manifold, the easiest way to calculate the signed distance from a point is by searching for the minimum distance at all the mesh triangles. This strategy requires iterating all the triangles for each query to the signed distance field. There are methods based on different strategies that accelerate this nearest triangle search. If the user does not require getting exact distances to the object, other strategies exist that discretize the space in some fixed sample points. Then, the queries to arbitrary points are calculated using an interpolation of the precalculated discretization. This project presents a new approach based on an octree-like subdivision to accelerate the computation of these signed distance fields queries from a triangle mesh. The main idea is to construct an octree structure in which each leaf will contain only the nearest triangles for all the points in that region. Therefore, when the user wants to calculate the distance from an arbitrary point in the space, it will only compare the triangles influencing that region. Moreover, we present a method to calculate approximated distances based on the discretization approach mentioned before. We designed and developed an octree discretization strategy and explored different interpolation techniques. The distance computation of this discretization is accelerated by the strategy developed in the project

4D Cubism: Modeling, Animation and Fabrication of Artistic Shapes

The paper describes an original approach to creating and producing artistic shapes in a cubist style. We propose mathematical models and algorithms for adding cubist features to (or cubification of) time-variant sculptural shapes as well as a practical technological pipeline embracing all the main phases of their production. A novel method is proposed for faceting and local distortion of the given artistic shape. A new concept of a 4D cubist camera is introduced for multiple projections from 4D space-time to 3D space and combining them using space-time blending to create animated sculptures. 3D printing for stop-motion animation is proposed as one of the final pipeline processing stages. The proposed techniques are implemented with artist friendly user interfaces and experimental results are presented

Discontinuous Galerkin discretised level set methods with applications to topology optimisation

This thesis presents research concerning level set methods discretised using discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods. Whilst the context of this work is level set based topology optimisation, the main outcomes of the research concern advancements which are agnostic of application. The first of these outcomes are the development of two novel DG discretised PDE based level set reinitialisation techniques, the so called Elliptic and Parabolic reinitialisation methods, which are shown through experiment to be robust and satisfy theoretical optimal rates of convergence. A novel Runge-Kutta DG discretisation of a simplified level set evolution equation is presented which is shown through experiment to be high-order accurate for smooth problems (optimal error estimates do not yet exist in the literature based on the knowledge of the author). Narrow band level set methods are investigated, and a novel method for extending the level set function outside of the narrow band, based on the proposed Elliptic Reinitialisation method, is presented. Finally, a novel hp-adaptive scheme is developed for the DG discretised level set method driven by the degree with which the level set function can locally satisfy the Eikonal equation defining the level set reinitialisation problem. These component parts are thus combined to form a proposed DG discretised level set methodology, the efficacy of which is evaluated through the solution of numerous example problems. The thesis is concluded with a brief exploration of the proposed method for a minimum compliance design problem