| Scientists and engineers use visualization techniques to turn the numerical results from a solid or fluid mechanics simulation into interactive graphics that help them understand the results. This work provides visualization techniques for stress, strain (second-order tensor fields) and stiffness (fourth-order tensor fields). The techniques are applied to data from Geomechanics, a branch of civil engineering focused on predicting how earthquakes affect soil and infrastructure such as buildings and bridges. The resulting visualizations help illustrate the state of the simulation and facilitate prediction of solids' failure under stress. The main contributions in this work include (i) a decomposition method to reduce fourth-order tensors to second-order which highlight features of interest, (ii) a new visualization technique for second-order tensors, and (iii) an open source visualization application that facilitates finding critical regions of a solid volume and details within those regions. |
