Modeling turbulent flows with fractal interpolation
Kyle Hegeman, Michael Ashikmhin · 2006
Turbulent flows present significant interest to computer graphics since they occur all around us. However, it remains difficult to model them numerically because of the complexity of turbulence phenomena. The two approaches commonly used in practice are computationally expensive simulation on very fine grids and a cheap but ad-hoc solution of adding a noise component to the flow. In this paper we present an alternative procedure for modeling turbulent flows for computer graphics applications which combines numerical simulation and a procedural approach. The technique is based on fractal interpolation of a coarse flow field and builds upon large eddy simulation methods and self-similarity turbulence models from computational fluid dynamics.