INTERSECTION VOLUMES AND SURFACE-AREAS OF CYLINDERS FOR GEOMETRICAL MODELING AND TOLERANCING

Solid geometric modelling is an important medium for communicating par t shape-geometry information, and it encourages the study of solid vol umes and surface areas. Growing interest in solid-modelling applicatio ns which use surface and volume intersection methods is becoming evide nt. In their previous work, the authors of the paper examined variatio ns of primitive solids to create a means of representing geometric tol erances in a solid modeller. The paper examines the intersection of tw o cylinders with reference to the parametric tolerance zones that are associated with size, position and orientation tolerances. Intersectio n surface areas and volumes are examined. This information can be used not only in the building of models with Boolean operations on primiti ves, but also in the checking of the interference between mating parts which can arise in fittings of various sorts and functional toleranci ng. Because of the likely computer implementation of surface-area or v olume calculations relating to the intersection of primitives, the inc lusion of faceted solids and methods of dealing with solid primitives are considered. The intersection of two cylinders of arbitrary radii a t an arbitrary angle, in a complex steam-trap and flash-tank pipe netw ork, is imaged.