Physically Based Rendering Techniques to Visualize Thin-Film Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Fluid Simulations

This thesis introduces a methodology and workflow I developed to visualize smoothed hydrodynamic particle based simulations for the research paper ’Thin-Film Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Fluid’ (2021), that I co-authored. I introduce a physically based rendering model which allows point cloud simulation data representing thin film fluids and bubbles to be rendered in a photorealistic manner. This includes simulating the optic phenomenon of thin-film interference and rendering the resulting iridescent patterns. The key to the model lies in the implementation of a physically based surface shader that accounts for the interference of infinitely many internally reflected rays in its bidirectional surface scattering function. By simulating the effect of interference on rays reflected off the surface of a thin-film as a component of a surface shader, I am able to obtain photorealistic renderings of bubbles and thin-films. This enables us to visualize complex vortical swirls and turbulent surface flows on oscillating and deforming surfaces in a physically accurate and visually evocative manner