More Accurate Pressure Solves

Solid Boundaries
Voxelized version works great if solids aligned with
grid
If not: though the error in geometry is O(x),
translates into O(1) error in velocities!
The simulation physics sees stair-steps, and gives
you motion for the stair-step case
Quick Fix
Measure accurate normals
Before pressure solve, on boundary, fix

Then do voxelized pressure, set up to not modify
boundary

u
v
u +

n

ng(
v
u
SOLID

v
u)
( )
Quick Fix Fails
This is equivalent for grid-aligned solids
Works great for highly dynamic splashing etc.
Fails miserably in steadier situations
Quick Fix Fails
This is equivalent for grid-aligned solids
Works great for highly dynamic splashing etc.
Fails miserably in steadier situations
GRAVITY
Quick Fix Fails
This is equivalent for grid-aligned solids
Works great for highly dynamic splashing etc.
Fails miserably in steadier situations
BOUNDARY FIX
Quick Fix Fails
This is equivalent for grid-aligned solids
Works great for highly dynamic splashing etc.
Fails miserably in steadier situations
PRESSURE SOLVE
Quick Fix Fails
This is equivalent for grid-aligned solids
Works great for highly dynamic splashing etc.
Fails miserably in steadier situations
Fictitious currents emerge and unstably grow
Rethinking the problem
See Batty et al. (tomorrow)
If we keep our fluid blobs constant volume,
incompressibility constraint means:
blobs stay in contact with each other
(no interpenetration, no gaps)
Staying in contact == inelastic, sticky collision
Inelastic, sticky collisions
Take two particles. Interaction force update:




(F is like pressure gradient)
Contact constraint is:

(like divergence-free condition)

u
1

v
u
1
+
1
m
1
v
F
v
u
2

v
u
2

1
m
2
v
F
u
1

v
u
2
= 0
Inelastic, sticky collisions (2)
Can solve for F to satisfy kinematic constraint
Equivalently, find F that minimizes kinetic energy
of system:


Kinematics comes for free
F = argmin
1
2
m
1
v
u
1
2
+
1
2
m
2
v
u
2
2
|
\

|
.
|
Variational Pressure Solve
Pressure update is fluid particle interaction
Incompressible means no stored energy:
fully inelastic
Thus it must minimize kinetic energy + work



with constraint p=0 on free surface
Can prove its equivalent to regular PDE form!
p = argmin
1
2
u
new
2
}}}
p(

n)gAtu
solid
solid
}}
Variational goodness
The solid wall boundary condition vanishes!
(automatically enforced at minimum)
Discretizing kinetic energy integral much simpler:



Just need average fluid density in each cell, and
volume fraction of fluid inside cell
KE ~
1
2

i +
1
2
jk
Vol
i +1/ 2 jk
u
i +
1
2
jk
( )
2
ijk

+K
Linear System
Plug in discrete pressure update in discrete KE
Quadratic in pressures
Find discrete minimum == solve linear system
Linear system guaranteed to be symmetric,
positive definite
In fact, its exactly the same as voxelized
except each term is weighted by volume fractions
Benefits
Actually converges! (error is O(x) or better)
Handles resting case perfectly:
KE is minimized by zeroing out velocity, which we
get from hydrostatic pressure field
Can handle sub-grid-scale geometry
E.g. particles immersed in flow, narrow
channels, hair
Just need to know volume displaced!
Extra goodness
Can couple solids in flow easily:

Figure out formula for discrete pressure update to
solid velocity
Add solids kinetic energy to minimization

Automatically gives two-way strong coupling
between rigid bodies and flow, perfectly
compatible velocities at boundary, no tangential
coupling
Free Surfaces
The other problem we see with voxelization is free
surface treatment
Physics only sees voxels: waves less than
O(x) high are ignored
At least position errors will converge to zero but
errors in normal are O(1)!
(rendering will always look awful)
Ghost Fluid Method
Due to Fedkiw and coauthors

p
i

p
i+1

p=0
Ghost Fluid Method
Voxelized version:

p
i

p
i+1

p=0
cp
cx
~
p
i +1
p
i
Ax
Ghost Fluid Method
GFM version:

p
i

p
i+1

p=0
cp
cx
~
p
i +1
p
i
uAx
GFM with solids
Complementary to variational solve:
GFM just changes the pressure update
However, for triple junctions (solid+liquid+air) it
gets difficult to make this just right

Reinterpret GFM
The multiple fluid (two-phase) jump conditions:




So take finite difference for
Use average fluid density for pressure update
(average between liquid and air)
[ p] = 0
v
ug

n
| |
= 0
1

cp
c

(
= 0
1

cp
c

n
Variational free surface
Simply need volume fractions per cell
(how much of cell is liquid+air),
and average densities per cell
(mix between liquid and air)
Use average density for pressure update, volume
fraction for KE estime
Speed things up: all-air cells eliminated
(set p=0 there)
This is the discrete free surface
approximation!