Hello,
I’ve seen some posts involving simulated erosion, but what I’m after is taking an object and then exposing it to simulated wind in a given direction. I want to see how the shape of the object changes and “deforms” under this wind load and “freeze it” for further processing. Is this possible? I’d appreciate any suggestions or references.
Jared
I should be more clear. I want to take a complex form and subject it to wind loads and freeze it at a point of maximum displacement in the same direction as the wind.
What I really wanted to do is start out with a “block” object and have the wind “erode” this block. It seems like that is currently beyond my capabilities however, so I figured the other goal is more reachable.
The behaviour would depend a lot on what you simulate the object as. For something flexible and loose like a sail or a flag it will billow out or flap, but if you model it as a stiff shell or solid (presumably anchored at some points), the resulting deformation might not be so interesting - I think mostly things will just lean and bend slightly. To get something more like the smoothing effect of erosion probably needs a different approach than just applying pressure as the wind goal does.
Thanks for the insight. What I really want to achieve is a sort of smoothing effect like you mentioned. I’m uncertain however of where to start, especially as a “newbee”. Do you have a suggestion?
A few thoughts on key parameters to take into account. I have no idea how to code these in Grasshopper / Kangaroo :
Erosion is very demendent on wind direction. Do you want to consider one direction only?
Erosion will happen most at exposed corners, particularly at the top and at the windward edge, but also on smooth exposed surfaces, e.g. the top and sides of a dome. Some kind of rule which rounds corners or increases their radius of curvature at these locations might be able to simulate this effect.
Deposition will happen most at the downwind side in the lee of the object, but also in the upwind ‘stagnation’ region. Some kind of rule which adds materials in such locations might be able to simulate this effect.
This type of approach would no doubt need very specific rules to be written based on the specific input geometry and it would be hard to generalise for abstract geometry.
One possibility could be using voxels. Few of my fellow students did this for a rain/erosion terrain simulation.
Give them a lifespan and after being exposed to the wind reduce it and finally let them die. In the end you can use dendro for example to mesh.
You could make some rules for the lifespan. If the voxel is on the edge for example he maybe just has 11 neighbors and because of that he looses faster his time. Somehow like cellular automata rules
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For what I’m trying to do the wind has a predominant direction. I’m trying to show the physical forces of the world around my site on the envelope.
Do you have a good example or an example you like of using voxels?