Visual Simulation of Magnetic Fluids Using Dynamic Displacement Mapping for Spike Shapes (Special Issue on Image Electronics and Visual Computing Workshop 2012 (IEVC2012))

Although several simulation methods have been proposed to analyze the behavior of magnetic fluids in the computational physics field, it is still not reasonably tractable to simulate the spiking phenomenon using fully physically based methods. To synthesize spike shapes, a procedural approach has been proposed in the computer graphics field recently for visual simulation, which, however, cannot simulate dynamic arrangement and deformation of spikes since the spike shapes are determined beforehand. To overcome this drawback, we propose an improved model to incorporate the dynamic behavior of the spikes. The model is based on the assumption that the spikes are attracted by an external magnetic field and that each spike repels the others because of their magnetization. The position of the spikes on the liquid surface are determined in the simulation, and the spike shape is mapped according to the direction of the magnetic field lines. The coordinates at which the spike protrudes from the liquid surface are calculated in the fluid simulation.