Simulating Thin Shells by Bicubic Hermite Elements

Xingyu Ni*, Xuwen Chen* (joint 1st authors), Cheng Yu, Bin Wang, Baoquan Chen

In this study, we present the bicubic Hermite element method (BHEM), a new computational framework devised for the elastodynamic simulation of thin-shell structures. The BHEM is constructed based on quadrilateral Hermite patches, which serve as a unified representation for shell geometry, simulation, collision avoidance, as well as rendering. Compared with the commonly utilized linear FEM, the BHEM offers higher-order solution spaces, enabling the capture of more intricate and smoother geometries while employing significantly fewer finite elements. In comparison to other high-order methods, the BHEM achieves conforming continuity for Kirchhoff–Love (KL) shells with minimal complexity. Furthermore, by leveraging the subdivision and convex hull properties of Hermite patches, we develop an efficient algorithm for ray-patch intersections, facilitating collision handling in simulations and ray tracing in rendering. This eliminates the need for laborious remodeling of the pre-existing surface as the conventional approaches do. We substantiate our claims with comprehensive experiments, which demonstrate the high accuracy and versatility of the proposed method.

Simulating Thin Shells by Bicubic Hermite Elements