Novel Paradigms in Physics-Based Animation: Pointwise Divergence-Free Fluid Advection and Mixed-Dimensional Elastic Object Simulation

This thesis explores important but so far less studied aspects of physics-based animation: a simulation method for mixed-dimensional and/or non-manifold elastic objects, and a pointwise divergence-free velocity interpolation method applied to fluid simulation. Considering the popularity of single-type models e.g., hair, cloths, soft bodies, etc., in deformable body simulations, more complicated coupled models have gained less attention in graphics research, despite their relative ubiquity in daily life. This thesis presents a unified method to simulate such models: elastic bodies consisting of mixed-dimensional components represented with potentially non-manifold simplicial meshes. Building on well-known simplicial rod, shell, and solid models, this thesis categorizes and defines a comprehensive palette expressing all possible constraints and elastic energies for stiff and flexible connections between the 1D, 2D, and 3D components of a single conforming simplicial mesh. For fluid animation, this thesis proposes a novel methodology to enhance grid-based fluid animation with pointwise divergence-free velocity interpolation. Unlike previous methods which interpolate discrete velocity values directly for advection, this thesis proposes using intermediate steps involving vector potentials: first build a discrete vector potential field, interpolate these values to form a pointwise potential, and apply the continuous curl to recover a pointwise divergence-free flow field. Particles under these pointwise divergence-free flows exhibit significantly better particle distributions than divergent flows over time. To accelerate the use of vector potentials, this thesis proposes an efficient method that provides boundary-satisfying and smooth discrete potential fields on uniform and cut-cell grids. This thesis also introduces an improved ramping strategy for the “Curl-Noise” method of Bridson et al. (2007), which enforces exact no-normal-flow on the exterior domain boundaries and solid surfaces. The ramping method in the thesis effectively reduces the incidence of particles colliding with obstacles or creating erroneous gaps around the obstacles, while significantly alleviating the artifacts the original ramping strategy produces

Strange Attractors in Dissipative Nambu Mechanics : Classical and Quantum Aspects

We extend the framework of Nambu-Hamiltonian Mechanics to include dissipation in $R^{3}$ phase space. We demonstrate that it accommodates the phase space dynamics of low dimensional dissipative systems such as the much studied Lorenz and R\"{o}ssler Strange attractors, as well as the more recent constructions of Chen and Leipnik-Newton. The rotational, volume preserving part of the flow preserves in time a family of two intersecting surfaces, the so called {\em Nambu Hamiltonians}. They foliate the entire phase space and are, in turn, deformed in time by Dissipation which represents their irrotational part of the flow. It is given by the gradient of a scalar function and is responsible for the emergence of the Strange Attractors. Based on our recent work on Quantum Nambu Mechanics, we provide an explicit quantization of the Lorenz attractor through the introduction of Non-commutative phase space coordinates as Hermitian $N \times N$ matrices in $R^{3}$. They satisfy the commutation relations induced by one of the two Nambu Hamiltonians, the second one generating a unique time evolution. Dissipation is incorporated quantum mechanically in a self-consistent way having the correct classical limit without the introduction of external degrees of freedom. Due to its volume phase space contraction it violates the quantum commutation relations. We demonstrate that the Heisenberg-Nambu evolution equations for the Quantum Lorenz system give rise to an attracting ellipsoid in the $3 N^{2}$ dimensional phase space.Comment: 35 pages, 4 figures, LaTe

Hydrodynamic Flows on Curved Surfaces: Spectral Numerical Methods for Radial Manifold Shapes

We formulate hydrodynamic equations and spectrally accurate numerical methods for investigating the role of geometry in flows within two-dimensional fluid interfaces. To achieve numerical approximations having high precision and level of symmetry for radial manifold shapes, we develop spectral Galerkin methods based on hyperinterpolation with Lebedev quadratures for $L^2$-projection to spherical harmonics. We demonstrate our methods by investigating hydrodynamic responses as the surface geometry is varied. Relative to the case of a sphere, we find significant changes can occur in the observed hydrodynamic flow responses as exhibited by quantitative and topological transitions in the structure of the flow. We present numerical results based on the Rayleigh-Dissipation principle to gain further insights into these flow responses. We investigate the roles played by the geometry especially concerning the positive and negative Gaussian curvature of the interface. We provide general approaches for taking geometric effects into account for investigations of hydrodynamic phenomena within curved fluid interfaces.Comment: 14 figure

Nanorheology of viscoelastic shells: Applications to viral capsids

We study the microrheology of nanoparticle shells [Dinsmore et al. Science 298, 1006 (2002)] and viral capsids [Ivanovska et al. PNAS 101, 7600 (2004)] by computing the mechanical response function and thermal fluctuation spectrum of a viscoelastic spherical shell that is permeable to the surrounding solvent. We determine analytically the damped dynamics of the shear, bend, and compression modes of the shell coupled to the solvent both inside and outside the sphere in the zero Reynolds number limit. We identify fundamental length and time scales in the system, and compute the thermal correlation function of displacements of antipodal points on the sphere and the mechanical response to pinching forces applied at these points. We describe how such a frequency-dependent antipodal correlation and/or response function, which should be measurable in new AFM-based microrheology experiments, can probe the viscoelasticity of these synthetic and biological shells constructed of nanoparticles.Comment: 17 page

Surface-Only Simulation of Fluids

Surface-only simulation methods for fluid dynamics are those that perform computation only on a surface representation, without relying on any volumetric discretization. Such methods have superior asymptotic complexity in time and memory than the traditional volumetric discretization approaches, and thus are more tractable for simulation of complex fluid phenomena. Although for most computer graphics applications and many engineering applications, the interior flow inside the fluid phases is typically not of interest, the vast majority of existing numerical techniques still rely on discretization of the volumetric domain. My research first tackles the mesh-based surface tracking problem in the multimaterial setting, and then proposes surface-only simulation solutions for two scenarios: the soap-films and bubbles, and the general 3D liquids. Throughout these simulation approaches, all computation takes place on the surface, and volumetric discretization is entirely eliminated