Collision ditection for contact problems in mechanics with a boundary search algorithm

Abstract

The accurate description and modeling of contact problems in mechanics is an important technical problem, where many disciplines, e.g., mechanics, dynamics, geometry or visualization have to contribute. In this paper an algorithm to determine the intersecting part between two bodies described by polyhedra is presented. At first a rough but fast test is used to check whether there exists at all the possibility that two objects collide. If they possibly collide, a more sophisticated algorithm checks the actual collision status. The intersection boundary is computed, defined by a closed polygon with a tracking method. Then, the boundary faces are searched along the intersection boundary polygon. In the last step, the inserted faces are found and the intersecting part is formed. The presented boundary search algorithm has the following advantages: I. high precision, II. high efficiency, III. simple data structure. The collision detection and collision geometry modeling are important tasks which build the basis for the analysis of the contact kinematics and contact force computation