Paper Info
Title
Modeling ice dynamics as a thin-film Stefan problem
Abstract
Large, 3D ice formations such as icicles exhibit a high degree of geometric and optical complexity. Modeling these features by hand can be a daunting task, so we present a novel physically-based algorithm for simulating this phenomenon. Solidification is usually posed as a so-called 'Stefan problem', but the problem in its classic form is inappropriate for simulating the ice typically found in a winter scene. We instead use the 'thin-film' variant of the Stefan problem to derive velocity equations for a level set simulation. However, due to the scales involved in the problem, even an adaptive grid level set solver is still insufficient to track the tip of an icicle. Therefore, we derive an analytical solution for the icicle tip and use it to correct the level set simulation. The results appear to be in agreement with experimental data. We also present a physically-based technique for modeling ripples along the ice surface that alleviates the need to explicitly track small-scale geometry. To our knowledge, our approach is the most complete model available, and produces complex visual phenomena that no previous method has been able to capture.
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.5555/1218064.1218087
Symposium on Computer Animation 2004
Keywords
Field
DocType
physically-based technique,ice surface,analytical solution,adaptive grid level set,thin-film stefan problem,stefan problem,complete model,icicle tip,novel physically-based algorithm,ice dynamic,classic form,level set simulation,analytic solution,finite elements,thin film,level set,polar decomposition,subdivision surfaces
Computer science,Icicle,Level set,Algorithm,Polar decomposition,Finite element method,Subdivision surface,Solver,Stefan problem,Grid
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
3-905673-34-7
14
1.10
References 
Authors
15
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Theodore Kim113714.13
David Adalsteinsson26210.37
Ming Lin37046525.99