Surface-Only Dynamic Deformables using a Boundary Element Method

Abstract

We propose a novel surface-only method for simulating dynamic deformables without the need for volumetric meshing or volumetric integral evaluations. While based upon a boundary element method (BEM) for linear elastodynamics, our method goes beyond simple adoption of BEM by addressing several of its key limitations. We alleviate large displacement artifacts due to linear elasticity by extending BEM with a moving reference frame and surface-only fictitious forces, so that it only needs to handle deformations. To reduce memory and computational costs, we present a simple and practical method to compress the series of dense matrices required to simulate propagation of elastic waves over time. Furthermore, we explore a constraint enforcement mechanism and demonstrate the applicability of our method to general computer animation problems, such as frictional contact.