CHS: Small: Physically-Based Simulation of Strand-Liquid Interaction

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This project develops algorithms that predict the dynamics of liquids interacting with thin flexible strands. The interaction of strands with each other, and with liquids, is a fundamental physical consideration in myriad contexts. Therefore, the development of computer algorithms that can predict the physics of liquid-strand interaction has the potential to spur advances in many important scientific and engineering fields of investigation. New algorithms are needed to improve realism in virtual reality, one of the grand challenges in engineering as recognized by the National Academy of Engineering, and also to advance important problems in biology, transoceanic communications, robotics, graphical animation, and industrial product design. A fundamental challenge addressed by this project is accounting for the many ways in which liquids and strands interact. These interactions involve numerous physical ingredients at distinct spatiotemporal scales. Efficient integration of these components in numerical algorithms remains an important and challenging problem. Solving this problem will involve development of algorithms that model complex, multi-scale, multi-physics systems. The process of designing such algorithms will itself produce new insights transferrable across scientific, engineering, and creative disciplines. Students trained by this project will become highly skilled in developing, extending, and harnessing numerical and graphical algorithms for applications spanning the natural sciences and engineering. The investigators will encourage participation from underrepresented groups at the doctoral, masters, and undergraduate levels.The research studies numerical modeling of liquid-strand interactions involving the consideration of multiple physical ingredients, including strand elasticity, liquid inertia, capillary action, wetting-induced tribological changes, inter-strand contact and friction, as external forces like gravity, and dimensionless groups, at multiple spatiotemporal scales, and over transient periods. Unlike existing methods that model certain specific processes in isolation, this project emphasizes broad-purpose simulation of liquid-strand interaction. This focus requires thoughtful selection of a computer model for each physical ingredient, as well as special attention to compatibility between choices, so that reconciliation of all the ingredients in different combinations becomes tractable. In particular, this project will be carried out with two major thrusts, namely, the numerical modeling of strands interacting with Newtonian and Non-Newtonian fluids. These thrusts will also crosscut research on robust simulation of hair contacts and performance acceleration for interactive simulation.