Topological and differential-equation methods for surface intersections (Q1186441)

The authors examine the problem of surface-surface intersections using topological and differential-equation methods. Given two regular rational \(B\)-spline surface patches (without self intersection for which the partial derivatives are linearly independent), the authors are interested in computing their intersection, i.e. solutions to the corresponding system of equations. This paper first addresses the case of transversal intersections but the authors' method is also extended to deal with a class of nontransversal intersections involving infinite singular points arising from the intersection of two surfaces along a curve on which the two surfaces have the same tangent plane. An adaptive search method guided by the Poincaré index theory is developed that invokes the rotation number of vector fields to find critical points of the oriented distance function between two surfaces (of course, the vector field is the gradient of the oriented distance function). This approach allows the development of a global search method for identifying areas enclosing small loops and singularities of the intersection set. Tensorial differential equations are developed to trace intersection curves viewed as isodistance curves of two surfaces. These ideas are used to develop an algorithm for the computation of rational \(B\)-spline surface intersections. Some numerical examples and recommendations are given.