A Physical Model Of Turbulent Fluids

Turbulent phenomena are a subject of great interest for the computer graphics community as well as for the physics community. In computer graphics, current models of turbulent flow are mostly kinematic and stochastic models. The models presented in this paper are all physically-based and totally deterministic. They were achieved using the Cordis-Anima physical modeller-simulator, which is based upon point physics connected by physical interactions. In order to obtain physically and visually fine phenomena, while using a rather low number of particles, we resort to multi-scale modelling: the turbulent phenomena are modelled by a medium-scale physical model, whereas the refinement is achieved by a small-scale linear physical model. The final simulation is achieved by coupling these models. The resulting simulations present various phenomena inherent in turbulent fluids (curls, vortices, dissipation, diffusion). We also succeeded in reproducing several specific observed phenomena such as Kelvin-Helmholtz and Von Karman turbulences.