Subdivision schemes for fluid flow

Abstract

The motion of fluids has been a topic of study for hundreds of years. In its most general setting, fluid flow is governed by a system of non-linear partial differential equations known as the Navier-Stokes equations. However, in several important settings, these equations degenerate into simpler systems of linear partial differential equations. This paper will show that flows corresponding to these linear equations can be modeled using subdivision schemes for vector fields. Given an initial, coarse vector field, these schemes generate an increasingly dense sequence of vector fields. The limit of this sequence is a continuous vector field defining a flow that follows the initial vector field. The beauty of this approach is that realistic flows can now be modeled and manipulated in real time using their associated subdivision schemes. CR Categories: I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling— Physically based modeling; I.6.5 [Simulation and Modeling]: Model Development—Modeling Methodologies