VISUALIZATION OF DYNAMIC FLUID SIMULATIONS - WAVES, SPLASHING, VORTICITY, BOUNDARIES, BUOYANCY

A software package is developed for the modelling and animation of vis cous incompressible fluids. The full time-dependent Navier-Stokes equa tions are used to simulate 2D and 3D incompressible fluid phenomena wh ich include shallow and deep fluid flow, transient dynamic flow, vorti city and splashing in simulated physical environments. The package als o allows the inclusion of variously shaped and spaced static or moving obstacles that are fully submerged or penetrate the fluid surface. St able numerical analysis techniques based on finite-differences are use d for the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. To model free-surfa ce fluids, a technique based on the Marker-and-Cell method is presente d. Based on the fluid's pressure and velocities obtained from the solu tion of the Navier-Stokes equations this technique allows modelling of the fluid's free surface either by solving a surface equation of by t racking the motion of marker particles. The latter technique is suitab le for visualization of splashing and vorticity. Furthermore, an editi ng tool is developed for easy definition of a physical-world which inc ludes obstacles, boundaries and fluid properties such as viscosity, in itial velocity and pressure. Using the editor, complex fluid simulatio ns can be performed without prior knowledge of the underlying fluid dy namics equations. Finally, depending on the application fluid renderin g techniques are developed using standard Silicon Graphics workstation hardware routines.