Non-Parametric Shape Design of Free-Form Shells Using Fairness Measures and Discrete Differential Geometry

Abstract

A non-parametric approach is proposed for shape design of free-form shells discretized into triangular mesh. The discretized forms of curvatures are used for computing the fairness measures of the surface. The measures are defined as the area of the offset surface and the generalized form of the Gauss map. Gaussian curvature and mean curvature are computed using the angle defect and the cotangent formula, respectively, defined in the field of discrete differential geometry. Optimization problems are formulated for minimizing various fairness measures for shells with specified boundary conditions. A piecewise developable surface can be obtained without a priori assignment of the internal boundary. Effectiveness of the proposed method for generating various surface shapes is demonstrated in the numerical examples.