The Walt Disney Company
Adaptive material point method

Abstract:

An adaptive material point method for simulating and rendering of solid materials is disclosed. During each time step, a simulation application splits and/or merges particles according to a resolution of a grid and assigns properties to the split/merged particles. The simulation application then rasterizes particle information, including masses and velocities, to the grid, on which forces and/or collisions are computed to obtain updated velocities. Grid information, including the updated velocities, is then transferred back to the particles. The transfer from particles to grid and back from grid to particles may employ different transfer functions. In particular, a quadratic transfer function may be used to transfer information from the particles to the grid, while a linear transfer function may be used elsewhere, including to transfer information back from the grid to the particles. After updated velocities are transferred to the particles, the simulation application advects the particles using the updated velocities.