Modeling and Visualization of Underground Structures

Based on the solid modeling, transformation operation and Boolean operation techniques widely available in computer-aided design and drafting system, first, this paper proposed a general modeling method for dynamic underground structure simulation. Then, representations of underground structures, ground, and related information in three-dimensional space were investigated. Some suggestions were put forwarded to improve visualization results, including object organization by layers, thematic viewing, level of detail for object representation, and spatial cueing for useful information. Application examples were given to illustrate the visualization effects. Finally, virtual reality technology was employed in the simulation of the underground structures. By positioning objects using real-time information, picking objects, and then accessing their real world working status through the Internet, the realistic results of a virtual system were further discussed. It has also been found that in order to obtain satisfactory visual results using an inexpensive desktop computer, a virtual reality model must be optimized from the perspective of reducing object complexity as well as efficient scene management.