Toward real-time simulation of physics-based fluid behaviors in a synthetic virtual environment

In this dissertation, we have achieved two particular kinds of fluid simulation in real time: water surface wave and dust behavior behind moving vehicle. New approaches as well as improvement of existing approaches have been introduced to build better real-time simulation engines for surface wave and dust behavior.; For the surface wave simulation, we have implemented a novel approach that is based on the full form of 2D shallow water equations. Compared to the time-consuming 3D Navier-Stokes equations, 2D shallow water equations are the most efficient description method of surface waves. The generality of the shallow water equations allows our approach to be employed in a wide variety of applications. We have utilized a semi-implicit time integration method to carry out the simulation. To further accelerate the simulation, we have adopted an adaptive grid algorithm to automatically select appropriate grid size, thus saving CPU time required in the case that fluid activity is limited to local area. Performance data shows that, for a moderate grid size of 100 x 100, our algorithm achieves real-time performance on an Onyx2 graphics workstation.; For the dust simulation, we have improved an existing simulation scheme in CFD and extended it to deal with vehicle acceleration changes, which are important and frequent activities for an interactive system. We have developed new mechanisms and constructed more efficient algorithms for dust generation and movement. A new approach based on flow pattern interpolation is implemented to derive new flow field from existing results in real-time. An image-based local dust turbulence model invented to enhance the realism of dust behavior. The turbulence model is integrated with the real-time rendering engine to generate, control, and render the dust particles.; To demonstrate the usability of our fluid simulation systems-the wave engine and the dust engine, we have tested them with two applications in different areas. We have implemented an interactive vehicle driving simulation environment that integrates both the surface wave simulation and dust simulation. We have also explored the possibility of exploiting our simulation engines for learning fluid concepts.