Introduction to Modeling

Fluid Dynamics

1
 Different Kind of
Problem
• Can be particles, but lots of
them
• Solve instead on a uniform
grid

2
 No Particles => New
State
Particle Fluid
• Mass • Density
• Velocity • Velocity Field
• Position • Pressure
• Viscosity

3
 No Particles => New
Equations
Navier-Stokes equations for
viscous, incompressible liquids.

u 0
1
u t  u u  u 
2
p  f

4
 What goes in must come
out
Gradient of the velocity field= 0
Conservation of Mass

u 0
1
u t  u u  u 
2
p  f

5
 Time derivative
Time derivative of velocity field
Think acceleration
u
a
u 0 t
1
u t  u u  u 
2
p  f

6
 Advection term
Field is advected through itself
Velocity goes with the flow

u 0
1
u t  u u  u 
2
p  f

7
 Diffusion term
Kinematic Viscosity times Laplacian of u
Differences in Velocity damp out

u 0
1
u t  u u  u  2
p  f

8
 Pressure term
Fluid moves from high pressure to low pressure
Inversely proportional to fluid density,
ρ

u 0
1
u t  u u  u  2
p  f

9
 External Force Term
Can be or represent anythying
Used for gravity or to let animator “stir”

u 0
1
u t  u u  u  2
p  f

10
 Navier-Stokes
How do we solve these equations?

u 0
1
u t  u u  u 
2
p  f

11
 Discretizing in space and
time
• We have differential
equations
• We need to put them in a
form we can compute

• Discetization – Finite
Difference Method

12
 Discretize in Space
Staggered Grid vs Regular
X Velocity
Y Velocity
Pressure

13
 Discretize the operators
• Just look them up or derive
them with multidimensional
Taylor Expansion
• Be careful if you used a
staggered grid

14
 Example 2D
Discetizations
Divergence Laplacian
Operator Operator

1 1

-1 0 1 1 -4 1

-1 1

15
 Make a linear system
It all boils down
to Ax=b.

? ?   ?  x1   b1 
? ?  x  b 
   2  2
        
     
      
 ?    ? n d xn d  xn d   xn d 

16
 Simple Linear System
• Exact solution takes O(n3)
time where n is number of
cells
• In 3D k3 cells where k is
discretization on each axis
• Way too slow O(n9)

17
 Need faster solver
• Our matrix is symmetric and
positive definite….This
means we can use
♦ Conjugate Gradient
• Multigrid also an option –
better asymptotic, but slower
in practice.

18
 Time Integration
• Solver gives us time
derivative
• Use it to update the system
state
U(t+Δt)
U(t)

Ut

19
 Discetize in Time
• Use some system such as
forward Euler.
• RK methods are bad because
derivatives are expensive
• Be careful of timestep

20
 Time/Space relation?
• Courant- x
Friedrichs-Lewy t 
(CFL) condition u
• Comes from the
advection term

21
 Now we have a CFD
simulator
• We can simulate fluid using
only the aforementioned parts
so far
• This would be like Foster &
Metaxas first full 3D simulator

• What if we want it real-time?

22
 Time for Graphics Hacks
• Unconditionally stable
advection
♦ Kills the CFL condition
• Split the operators
♦ Lets us run simpler solvers
• Impose divergence free field
♦ Do as post process

23
 Semi-lagrangian
Advection
CFL Condition limits
speed of
information travel
forward in time

Like backward Euler,

what if instead we
trace back in time?

p(x,t) back-trace
24
 Divergence Free Field
• Helmholtz-Hodge Decomposition
♦ Every field can be written as

w u  q
• w is any vector field
• u is a divergence free field
• q is a scalar field

25
 Helmholtz-Hodge

STAM 2003
26
 Divergence Free Field
• We have w and we want u
w u  q
2
w u   q
w 2 q
• Projection step solves this equation

u w  q
27
 Ensures Mass
Conservation
• Applied to field before
advection
• Applied at the end of a step

• Takes the place of first

equation in Navier-Stokes

28
 Operator Splitting
• We can’t use semi-lagrangian
advection with a Poisson solver
• We have to solve the problem
in phases

• Introduces another source of

error, first order approximation

29
 Operator Splitting

u 0
1
u t   u u  u  p  f
2

30
 Operator Splitting
1. Add External f
Forces
 u u
2. Semi-lagrangian
advection
 u 2
3. Diffusion solve
u 0
4. Project field
31
 Operator Splitting

u(x,t)
 u u u 0

W0 W1 W2 W3 W4

f  u
2

u(x,t+Δt
)
32
 Various Extensions
• Free surface tracking
• Inviscid Navier-Stokes
• Solid Fluid interaction

33
 Free Surfaces
• Level sets
♦ Loses volume
♦ Poor surface detail
• Particle-level sets
♦ Still loses volume
♦ Osher, Stanley, & Fedkiw, 2002
• MAC grid
♦ Harlow, F.H. and Welch, J.E., "Numerical
Calculation of Time-Dependent Viscous
Incompressible Flow of Fluid with a Free
Surface", The Physics of Fluids 8, 2182-2189
(1965).

34
 Free Surfaces
MAC Grid Level Set
- + + + + + + + +

- 0 + + + + + + +

- - 0 + + + + + +

- - - + + + + + +

- - - - - + + + +

- - - - - - + + +

- - - - - - - + +

- - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - -

35
 Inviscid Navier-Stokes
• Can be run faster
• Only 1 Poisson Solve needed
• Useful to model smoke and
fire
♦ Fedkiw, Stam, Jensen 2001

36
 Solid Fluid Interaction
• Long history in CFD
• Graphics has many papers on
1 way coupling
♦ Way back to Foster & Metaxas, 1996
• Two way coupling is a new
area in past 3-4 years
♦ Carlson 2004

37
 Where to get more info
• Simplest way to working fluid
simulator (Even has code)
♦ STAM 2003
• Best way to learn enough to
be dangerous
♦ CARLSON 2004

38
 References
CARLSON, M., “Rigid, Melting, and Flowing Fluid,” PhD Thesis, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Jul. 2004.

FEDKIW, R., STAM, J., and JENSEN, H. W., “Visual simulation of smoke,” in Proceedings of
ACM SIGGRAPH 2001, Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series, pp. 15–
22, Aug. 2001.

FOSTER, N. and METAXAS, D., “Realistic animation of liquids,” Graphical Models and
Image Processing, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 471–483, 1996.

HARLOW, F.H. and WELCH, J.E., "Numerical Calculation of Time-Dependent Viscous

Incompressible Flow of Fluid with a Free Surface", The Physics of Fluids 8, 2182-2189
(1965).

LOSASSO, F., GIBOU, F., and FEDKIW, R., “Simulating water and smoke with an octree
data structure,” ACM Transactions on Graphics, vol. 23, pp. 457–462, Aug. 2004.

OSHER, STANLEY J. & FEDKIW, R. (2002). Level Set Methods and Dynamic Implicit
Surfaces. Springer-Verlag.

STAM, J., “Real-time fluid dynamics for games,” in Proceedings of the Game Developer
Conference, Mar. 2003.
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