Texture-Based Flow Visualization on Isosurfaces from Computational Fluid Dynamics
 		    
Abstract:

Isosurfacing, by itself, is a useful visualization technique for investigating 3D vector fields. Applying texture-based flow visualization techniques to isosurfaces provides engineers even more insight into the characteristics of 3D vector fields. We apply a method for producing dense, texture-based representations of flow on isosurfaces. It combines two well know scientific visualization techniques, namely iso-surfacing and texture-based flow visualization, into a useful hybrid approach. The method is fast and can generate dense representations of flow on isosurfaces with high spatio-temporal correlation at 60 frames per second. The method is applied in the context of CFD simulation data, namely, the investigation of a common swirl flow pattern and the visualization of blood flow.

Project: This work has been carried out as part of the application research project Multi-Disciplinary Visualization in the VRVis Research Center, Area 3, Project 2, which is funded by an Austrian governmental research project called Kplus in cooperation with AVL.
Papers: Texture-Based Flow Visualization on Isosurfaces from Computational Fluid Dynamics by Robert S. Laramee, Jürgen Schneider, and Helwig Hauser, Proceedings of the 6th Joint IEEE TCVG - EUROGRAPHICS Symposium on Visualization (VisSym 2004), May 19-21, 2004, Konstanz, Germany, forthcoming ( PDF format, ~2.2MB ) Texture-Based Flow Visualization on Isosurfaces by Robert S. Laramee, Jürgen Schneider, and Helwig Hauser, VRVis Technical Report, TR-VRVis-2003-038 ( PDF format, ~6MB )
CFD Commentary: Click here in order to read an actual commentary from Jürgen Schneider of AVL on the utility of texture-based flow visualization on isosurfaces.
Result MPEG Animations:

Texture advection on a velocity isosurface (5.0 m/s) with another simulation attribute mapped to hue. Here the engineer gains insight into how the flow complies with the swirl flow pattern. (330 frames)

A close-up view of texture advection on an isosurface with a low-contrast normal mask applied. Hue has higher opacity in areas where the flow has a higher normal component to the isosurface. (200 frames)

A closer view of the texture advection on an isosurface with a normal mask toggled for visual comparison. The first 100 frames show the normal mask enabled, while the second 100 frames show the normal mask disabled (200 frames)

The same isosurface with a clipping plane applied. The clipping plane reveals occluded structures in the isosurface. (150 frames)

A top view of the isosurface. From this view, it looks as if the flow generally complies with the swirl flow pattern. (300 frames)

An isosurface (0.04 m/s) showing the pattern of blood flow with the three blood vessels and inside the abnormal junction. The texture-advection clearly shows the flow moving in the opposing direction. (470 frames)

The visualization of tumble flow. Tumble flow is similar to swirl flow except the swirling pattern is around a different axis. (200 frames).

An isosurface (2.0 m/s) from a wind flow simulation around a plane, with texture-based flow visualization applied (200 frames).

Another view of the isosurface rotating toward the viewer. (350 frames)

A view of the isosurface rotating away from the viewer. (330 frames).

This page is maintained by Robert S. Laramee.
In case of questions, comments, etc., please send mail to: Laramee "at" VRVis.at