Fast Simulation of Laplacian Growth

— Laplacian instability is the physical mechanism that drives pattern formation in many disparate natural phenomena. However, current algorithms for simulating this instability are impractically slow and memory intensive. We present a new algorithm that is over three orders of magnitude faster than previous methods and decreases memory use by two orders of magnitude. Our algorithm is based on the dielectric breakdown model from physics, but is faster, more intuitive, easier to implement, and simpler to control. We demonstrate the ability of our algorithm to simulate various natural phenomena and compare its performance with previous techniques.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: CGA
• Authors: Theodore Kim, Jason Sewall, Avneesh Sud, Ming C. Lin
• Keywords: Algorithm, CGA 2007, Computational Geometry, Disparate Natural Phenomena, Natural Phenomena