Simulating Liquid-Fabric Interactions

Project Page: http://libwetcloth.info/
Source Code for Simulation: https://github.com/nepluno/libwetcloth
Surface Reconstruction & Rendering: Houdini 16.5

We propose a method for simulating the complex dynamics of partially and fully saturated woven and knit fabrics interacting with liquid, including the effects of buoyancy, nonlinear drag, pore (capillary) pressure, dripping, and convection-diffusion. Our model evolves the velocity fields of both the liquid and solid relying on mixture theory, as well as tracking a scalar saturation variable that affects the pore pressure forces in the fluid. We consider the porous microstructure implied by the fibers composing individual threads, and use it to derive homogenized drag and pore pressure models that faithfully reflect the anisotropy of fabrics. In addition to the bulk liquid and fabric motion, we derive a quasi-static flow model that accounts for liquid spreading within the fabric itself. Our implementation significantly extends standard numerical cloth and fluid models to support the diverse behaviors of wet fabric, and includes a numerical method tailored to cope with the challenging nonlinearities of the problem. We explore a range of fabric-water interactions to validate our model, including challenging animation scenarios involving splashing, wringing, and collisions with obstacles, along with qualitative comparisons against simple physical experiments.