Lecture 2.

3
Surfaces

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 As we noted in the first lecture of this module that the
traditional way of representing a surface into use multiple
orthogonal projections.

Thus, in effect, the surface is defined by a net of orthogonal

plane curves lying in plane sections plus multiple orthogonal
projections of certain three dimensional feature lines.

The orthogonal plane curves may originally be designed on

paper or may be taken in a digitized form from a three
dimensional object or model (e.g. made of clay or plaster of
paris).

It is however important, consistent with what we learnt so far

while representing curves, to represent the surfaces
mathematically for modeling purposes. 2
 The mathematical model allows early and easy calculation and
analysis of surface characteristics such as curvature, or of
physical quantities such as volumes, surface area, moment of
inertia etc.

With surface description techniques, it is almost possible to

completely abolish the traditional net of lines surface
description.

There are mainly two approaches for surface description by (i)

Coons (ii) Bezier. Indeed, both the approaches are mutually
compatible.

The elements of mathematical parametric surface representation

are given in the following sections.
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 Surfaces of Revolution
There are several components in turbomachinery which are
simply axisymmetric bodies. Recall the Example 3 given in the
Lecture 2.1 (of this module), where we have three parts: shaft,
hub and disk. These parts are cylindrical and axisymmetric.

The axisymmetric bodies can be generated by revolving a line

(curve) about an axis, thus producing a surface of revolution.

The line segment is parallel to the axis of rotation, but is not

coincident with it.

The radius of the cylindrical surfaces is the perpendicular

distance between the line segment and rotation axis. The length
of the part is the length of the line segment. 4
 The parametric equation for a point on a surface of revolution is
developed by recalling that the parametric equation of the entity
to be rotated e.g.,
P(t) = [ x(t), y(t), z(t)] 0 t tmax (2.3.1)

P(t) in Eq. (2.3.1) is a function of single parameter t. Rotation

about an axis causes the location of the point to also be a
function of the rotation angle . Thus the point on the surface of
revolution is specified by two parameters t and . It is thus a bi-
parametric function shown in Fig. 2.3.1.

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Fig. 2.3.1 Surface of revolution
 For example, rotation about x - axis of a line segment, initially
lying in xy plane, the surface equation is

Q(t, ) = [ x(t), y(t) cos , y(t) sin ] (2.3.2)

Note that x coordinate does not change. Consider a shaft of

radius 1 unit and length 5 units. It is generated as a surface of
revolution, as shown in Fig. 2.3.2

Fig. 2.3.2 A shaft generated as a surface of revolution by revolving a line segment

along the circle 6
 Sweep Surfaces
A three dimensional surface is also obtained by traversing an
entity, e.g., a line, polygon or curve, along a path in space. The
resulting surfaces are called sweep surfaces.

Sweep surface generation is a frequently used technique in the

geometric modeling.

The simplest sweep entity is a point. The result of sweeping a

point along a path is, of course, not a surface but a space curve.
However, it serves to illustrate the fundamental technique.

Consider the position vector P [x y z 1] swept along the path

represented by the sweep transformation [T(s)].
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 The position vector Q(s) representing the resulting curve is given
by

Q s P T s s1 s s2 (2.3.3)

The transformation [T(s)] determines the shape of the curve. For

example, if the path is a straight line of length n parallel to the z
axis, then

1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
T s 0 s 1 (2.3.4)
0 0 1 0
0 0 ns 1

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 Complex paths can be developed by combining simple paths.

One of the simple sweep surface is obtained by traversing a line

segment along a path. Recalling that the parametric equation for
the line segment is

P(t ) P1 ( P2 P1 )t 0 t 1 (2.3.5)

The corresponding sweep surface is given by

Q s P(t ) T s 0 t 1, s1 s s2 (2.3.6)

Here, T(s) is the sweep transformation. If the sweep

transformation contains only translations, the resulting surface is
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planar. If the transformation contains rotation, it is non-planar.
 Parametric curves, e.g., cubic splines, parabolically blended,
Bezier and B spline curves, are also used to generate sweep
surfaces.

Figure 2.3.4 shows a sweep surface generated from a single

cubic spline curve segment swept parallel to the z-axis. The
cubic spline curve segment is shown in Fig. 2.3.3.

The sweep surface equation is identical to Eq. (2.3.6) where P(t)

represents the parametric curve, as explained in the previous
lecture.

A numerical example illustrating the technique follows in the

next few slides
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Fig. 2.3.3 Cubic spline curve segment 11
 Example : Cubic Spline Sweep Surface

Sweep the normalized cubic spline curve segment defined by

P1 [0 3 0 1],
P2 [3 0 0 1],
P1 [3 0 0 0],
P2 [3 0 0 0]

10 units along the z axis.

Q t, s C t T s 0 t 1, 0 s 1

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 The normalized cubic spline segment is given by

2 2 1 1 0 3 0 1
3 2 3 3 2 1 3 0 0 1
C t t t t 1
0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0

The sweep transformation is identical with Eq. (2.3.4)

This yields the equation for the sweep surface as

0 6 0 0 1 0 0 0
3 2 6 9 0 0 0 1 0 0
Q t, s t t t 1
3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 3 0 1 0 0 10 s 1 13
 For t = 0.5, s = 0.5
0 6 0 0 1 0 0 0
6 9 0 0 0 1 0 0
Q 0.5, 0.5 0.125 0.25 0.5 1
3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 3 0 1 0 0 5 1
3 1.5 5 1

The final swept surface is shown in Fig. 2.3.4

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Fig. 2.3.4 The swept surface developed for a cubic spline segment
 It is possible that surfaces of zero area are created while
generating the sweep surfaces from lines and curves. They are
called degenerate surfaces.

Care must be taken to avoid creating degenerate surfaces (or

parts of surfaces) while generating the sweep surfaces as they
cause difficulty in geometric modeling systems and mesh
generation later.

In addition to open curves, closed polygons and curves are used

to create sweep surfaces. If the end surfaces are included, then
the sweep surface encloses a finite volume.

Many geometric modeling systems create primitive volumes in

this way.

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 For example, a square or rectangle swept along a straight path
yields a rectangular parallelepiped.

A circle swept along a straight path yields a cylinder. A circle of

decreasing radius swept along a straight path yields a cone.
Rotation about the sweep axis is also possible.

Figure 2.3.5 shows the sweep surface resulting from a plane

square perpendicular to the x-axis being swept along and
simultaneously rotated through 90o about the x axis.

Fig.6.16 here

Fig. 2.3.5 Sweep surface generated by a square plane simultaneously sweeping

along and rotating about x-axis. 16
 Summary of Lecture 2.3

The procedure for generating surface of revolution and sweep

surfaces is presented.

END OF LECTURE 2.3

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