Free-form Parametric Surfaces Research Articles

Molecular dynamics-based triangulation algorithm of free-form parametric surfaces for computer-aided engineering

A new computational approach for automated triangulation of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) surface models, applicable to various CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) problems of practical interest is proposed. The complex shaped product configurations are represented by a set of Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) surface patches. The suggested technique is based on the molecular dynamics method. The main idea of the approach is that the mesh nodes are considered as similarly charged interacting particles which move within the region to be meshed under the influence of internal (such as particle–particle interaction forces) and external forces as well as optional additional forces. Moreover, the particles experience a medium resistance due to which the system comes to equilibrium within a relatively short period of time. The proposed 3D surface mesh generation algorithm uses a parametric NURBS representation as initial definition of the domain boundary. This method first distributes the interacting nodes into optimal locations in the parametric domain of the NURBS surface patch using molecular dynamics simulation. Then, the well-shaped triangles can be created after connecting the nodes by Delaunay triangulation. Finally, the mapping from parametric space to 3D physical space is performed. Since the presented interactive algorithm allows to control the distance between a pair of nodes depending on the curvature of the NURBS surface, the method generates high quality triangular mesh. The algorithm enables to produce uniform mesh, as well as anisotropic adaptive mesh with refinement in the large gradient regions. The mesh generation approach has the abilities to preserve the representation accuracy of the input geometry model, create a close relationship between geometry modeling and grid generation process, be automated to a large degree. Some examples are considered in order to illustrate the method’s ability to generate a surface mesh for a complicated CAD model.

Ray-tracing method for creeping waves on arbitrarily shaped nonuniform rational B-splines surfaces

An accurate creeping ray-tracing algorithm is presented in this paper to determine the tracks of creeping waves (or creeping rays) on arbitrarily shaped free-form parametric surfaces [nonuniform rational B-splines (NURBS) surfaces]. The main challenge in calculating the surface diffracted fields on NURBS surfaces is due to the difficulty in determining the geodesic paths along which the creeping rays propagate. On one single parametric surface patch, the geodesic paths need to be computed by solving the geodesic equations numerically. Furthermore, realistic objects are generally modeled as the union of several connected NURBS patches. Due to the discontinuity of the parameter between the patches, it is more complicated to compute geodesic paths on several connected patches than on one single patch. Thus, a creeping ray-tracing algorithm is presented in this paper to compute the geodesic paths of creeping rays on the complex objects that are modeled as the combination of several NURBS surface patches. In the algorithm, the creeping ray tracing on each surface patch is performed by solving the geodesic equations with a Runge-Kutta method. When the creeping ray propagates from one patch to another, a transition method is developed to handle the transition of the creeping ray tracing across the border between the patches. This creeping ray-tracing algorithm can meet practical requirements because it can be applied to the objects with complex shapes. The algorithm can also extend the applicability of NURBS for electromagnetic and optical applications. The validity and usefulness of the algorithm can be verified from the numerical results.

Immunological-based Approach for Accurate Fitting of 3D Noisy Data Points with Bézier Surfaces

Free-form parametric surfaces are common tools nowadays in many applied fields, such as Computer-Aided Design & Manu- facturing (CAD/CAM), virtual reality, medical imaging, and many others. A typical problem in this setting is to fit surfaces to 3D noisy data points obtained through either laser scanning or other digitizing methods, so that the real data from a physical object are transformed back into a fully usable digital model. In this context, the present paper describes an immunological- based approach to perform this process accurately by using the classical free-form Bézier surfaces. Our method applies a powerful bio-inspired paradigm called Artificial Immune Systems (AIS), which is receiving increasing attention from the sci- entific community during the last few years because of its appealing computational features. The AIS can be understood as a computational methodology based upon metaphors of the biological immune system of humans and other mammals. As such, there is not one but several AIS algorithms. In this chapter we focus on the clonal selection algorithm (CSA), which explicitly takes into account the affinity maturation of the immune response. The paper describes how the CSA algorithm can be effectively applied to the accurate fitting of 3D noisy data points with Bézier surfaces. To this aim, the problem to be solved as well as the main steps of our solving method are described in detail. Some simple yet illustrative examples show the good performance of our approach. Our method is conceptually simple to understand, easy to implement, and very general, since no assumption is made on the set of data points or on the underlying function beyond its continuity. As a consequence, it can be successfully applied even under challenging situations, such as the absence of any kind of information regarding the underlying function of data.

Fitting of Analytic Surfaces to Noisy Point Clouds

Fitting C2-continuous or superior surfaces to a set S of points sampled on a 2-manifold is central to reverse engineering, computer aided geometric modeling, entertaining, modeling of art heritage, etc. This article addresses the fitting of analytic (ellipsoid, cones, cylinders) surfaces in general position in . Currently, the state of the art presents limitations in 1) automatically finding an initial guess for the analytic surface F sought, and 2) economically estimating the geometric distance between a point of S and the analytic surface F. These issues are central in estimating an analytic surface which minimizes its accumulated distances to the point set. In response to this situation, this article presents and tests novel user-independent strategies for addressing aspects 1) and 2) above, for cylinders, cones and ellipsoids. A conjecture for the calculation of the distance point-ellipsoid is also proposed. Our strategies produce good initial guesses for F and fast fitting error estimation for F, leading to an agile and robust optimization algorithm. Ongoing work addresses the fitting of free-form parametric surfaces to S.

Modelling stiffeners of ship hull structures

In this study, the data associated with the definition of stiffeners on plate panels of ship structures are analysed and a data model is described. Then, methods to generate accurate representations of stiffeners as solid models are presented. First, a method is presented to create the parallel trajectory lines of the stiffeners computing geodesic offset paths on free-form parametric surfaces. Next, the generation of the boundary surfaces required to create boundary representation solid models of the stiffeners is described, and finally, this procedure is extended to produce the corresponding accurate edge cut-outs on any plates crossed.

Stripification of Free-Form Surfaces With Global Error Bounds for Developable Approximation

Developable surfaces have many desired properties in the manufacturing process. Since most existing CAD systems utilize tensor-product parametric surfaces including B-splines as design primitives, there is a great demand in industry to convert a general free-form parametric surface within a prescribed global error bound into developable patches. In this paper, we propose a practical and efficient solution to approximate a rectangular parametric surface with a small set of C 0 -joint developable strips. The key contribution of the proposed algorithm is that, several optimization problems are elegantly solved in a sequence that offers a controllable global error bound on the developable surface approximation. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and stability of the proposed algorithm.

Matching free-form surfaces

In this work, the matching problem between two free-form parametric surfaces, S 0(u, v) and S 1(u, v) , has been considered in the context of a first stage of the metamorphosis process, which is defined as gradual and continuous transformation of one key shape into another. A method is presented to approximate the two reparametrization functions, r(u, v) and t(u, v), via a discrete sampled set of N 2 grid samples on the surfaces. The N 2 samples on the source surface are matched against the N 2 samples on the target surface, employing a resemblance metric between their Gauss fields as a criterion. The method preserves the connectivity of the two key surfaces as well. Thus, the resulting reparameterization functions, interpolating the discrete solution must be diffeomorphism. The algorithm works with simple open surfaces, i.e. the surfaces that are homeomorphic to a disk.

A Symbolic Approach to Freeform Parametric Surface Blends

This paper presents a symbolic approach to the computation of blend surfaces across piecewise polynomial and rational surfaces. Curves in the parameter space of the primary surfaces can be specified as the rail curves, also known as trimlines, of the blend. Several techniques which require various levels of user interaction are presented for defining the cross-boundary tangent curves along the rail curves. The resulting blend is represented as a polynomial surface having tangent plane continuity with the primary surfaces to an accuracy bounded only by the machine precision. Also presented is a normalization method that approximates unit vector fields, an approach that might benefit other applications such as offset approximation and animation curve construction. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Symbolic Approach to Freeform Parametric Surface Blends

This paper presents a symbolic approach to the computation of blend surfaces across piecewise polynomial and rational surfaces. Curves in the parameter space of the primary surfaces can be specified as the rail curves, also known as trimlines, of the blend. Several techniques which require various levels of user interaction are presented for defining the cross-boundary tangent curves along the rail curves. The resulting blend is represented as a polynomial surface having tangent plane continuity with the primary surfaces to an accuracy bounded only by the machine precision. Also presented is a normalization method that approximates unit vector fields, an approach that might benefit other applications such as offset approximation and animation curve construction. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Computation of Shortest Paths on Free-Form Parametric Surfaces

Computation of shortest paths on free-form surfaces is an important problem in ship design, robot motion planning, computation of medial axis transforms of trimmed surface patches, terrain navigation and NC machining. The objective of this paper is to provide an efficient and reliable method for computing the shortest path between two points on a free-form parametric surface and the shortest path between a point and a curve on a free-form parametric surface. These problems can be reduced to solving a two point boundary value problem. Our approach for solving the two point boundary value problem is based on a relaxation method relying on finite difference discretization. Examples illustrate our method.

Umbilics and lines of curvature for shape interrogation

This paper describes a method to extract the generic features of free-form parametric surfaces for shape interrogation. The umbilical points, which are the singular points of the orthogonal net of lines of curvature, have generic features and may act like fingerprints for shape recognition. We investigate the generic features of the umbilics and behavior of lines of curvature which pass through an umbilic on a parametric free-form surface. Our method is based on a coordinate transformation to set the parametric surface in Monge form and on a Taylor expansion to compute the angles of the tangent lines to the lines of curvatures at an umbilic. We also develop a novel and practical criterion which assures the existence of local extrema of principal curvature functions at umbilical points. Finally, numerical experiments illustrate how the generic features of the umbilics can be applied for surface recognition.

Feature-based design and finite element mesh generation for functional surfaces

This paper describes an approach to feature-based design and feature-based mesh generation for multi-featured functional surfaces. Unlike standard free-form parametric surface representation where the parametric surface patch plays the key role in both surface design and finite element mesh generation, we propose an approach to these two tasks which proceeds from the level of a complete feature (for example, a pocket or channel). The result is a more direct method for modeling functional surface characteristics and a more efficient feature-based implementation of Delaunay surface triangulation.

Parametric piecewise surfaces intersection

A surface-surface intersection method has been developed for free-form parametric surfaces with C 1 continuity. An initial set of intersection points is calculated by any kind of iterative method such as Timmer's[1]. Additional points forming spans of the intersection curve(s) are calculated by an incremental method in the parametric space. The intersection curve is defined as a list of points. The final representation for the curve is user defined.

Predictor-corrector type of intersection algorithm for C 2 parametric surfaces

A predictor-corrector type of intersection algorithm is developed for free-form parametric surfaces with C 2 continuity. A surface-surface intersection is solved as a number of curve-surface intersections in which each of the curves is defined in the parameter space of the ‘primary surface’ as a straight line, passing through an initial point and pointing at an ‘engaging direction’. Concepts from differential geometry are employed to predict the initial points and the engaging directions before the Newton-Raphson iterations are performed to compute the actual intersection points. The algorithm proceeds in a predictor-corrector type of way with the propagation steps controlled by the user-specified tolerance. The computer implementation of the algorithm has presented quite satisfying results.