Using 3 D Computer Animation Tools To Render Complex Simulations
W. Scott Meador, Amit Chourasia · 2020
A multi-disciplinary team of researchers and students created several simulations and visualizations of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon building that occurred on September 11, 2001.The process took advantage of both animation and finite element analysis (FEA) simulation techniques for visualization.The imagery produced portrays the collision event on the exterior and interior of the Pentagon.This paper details the difficulties and successes of implementing a process to animate and realistically render the approach, impact, and explosion of the plane, based on an expert analysis of the crash and FEA data.One of the purposes of this project was to develop a data pipeline from FEA simulations to 3D animation and rendering programs that can be extended to other simulations thus bridging the gap between two non-coherent systems creating scientifically accurate simulations.