University of Wisconsin-Madison Skip navigationUW-Madison Home PageMy UW-MadisonSearch UW

  
 
 
 
 
 
 


PROJECT

Meshfree Modeling and Analysis
Normalized Functions
 
 

A function is called implicit for a given set of points if it implicitly defines a set of points by virtue of being equal to some particular value (usually zero) on these points and nowhere else. Such implicit functions may be obtained from any logical geometric construction.

Constructed implicit functions may behave exactly as a distance to the boundary. In this case we call them normal functions. However distance functions may be difficult to construct and they may not be differentiable. In contrast, normalized functions are smooth functions that approximate distance functions in the neighboorhood of the boundary and can be constructed automatically from most geometric representations using theory of R-functions.

Normalized functions can be constructed from Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) models (Figure 1), boundary representations (Figures 2, 3), heterogeneous in dimension cell complexes (Figure 4). Figure 5 shows parametric curve and isolines of the corresponding normalized function. One normalized function may be used for modification of another normalized function. For example, Figure 6(a) shows the zero set of the normalized function describing surface of a pawn and Figure 6(b) shows zero set of the normalized function defining the letters "RFM". Figure 6(c) shows zero set of the modified normalized function which maps the letters "RFM" onto the surface of the pawn.

(a)
(b)

Figure 1:(a) Domain described as Constructive Solid Geometry model; (b) corresponding normalized function

(a)
(b)

Figure 2: (a) Polygon; (b) function whose zero set defines the boundary of the polygon

(a)
(b)

Figure 3: A normalized function representing boundary of the state of Wisconsin (20,748 edges)

(a)
(b)

Figure 4: (a) Heterogeneous union of point sets; (b) function implicitly describing the set in Figure 3(a)

(a)
(b)

Figure 5: (a) A parametric curve and (b) isolines of the corresponding normalized function

(a)
(b)


(c)

Figure 6: (a) A normalized function describing the surface of pawn; (b) a normalized function defining letters "RFM"; (c) modification of normalized function shown in Figure 6(a) by normalized function shown in Figure 6(b)

 
 

References

[1] V. Shapiro and I. Tsukanov, Implicit Functions with Guaranteed Differential Properties, In Proceedings of the Fifth ACM Symposium on Solid Modeling and Applications, June 1999, Ann Arbor, MI

[2] V. Shapiro and I. Tsukanov, Meshfree Simulation of Deforming Domains, Computer-Aided Design , Vol. 31, No. 7, 1999, pp. 459-471

[3] V. L.Rvachev, T.I.Sheiko, V.Shapiro and I.Tsukanov, On Completeness of RFM Solution Structures, Computational Mechanics, special issue on meshfree methods, Vol. 25, 2000, pp. 305-316

[4] V. L. Rvachev, T.I. Sheiko, V. Shapiro, I. Tsukanov, Transfinite Interpolation Over Implicitly Defined Sets, Computer Aided Geometric Design, Vol. 18, No. 4, 2001, pp.195-220

  
College of Engineering | UW Home

University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering logo