Modelling Developable Ribbons Using Ruling Bending Coordinates

Abstract

This paper presents a new method for modelling the dynamic behaviour of developable ribbons, two dimensional strips with much smaller width than length. Instead of approximating such surface with a general triangle mesh, we characterize it by a set of creases and bending angles across them. This representation allows the developability to be satisfied everywhere while still leaves enough degree of freedom to represent salient global deformation. We show how the potential and kinetic energies can be properly discretized in this configuration space and time integrated in a fully implicit manner. The result is a dynamic simulator with several desirable features: We can model non-trivial deformation using much fewer elements than conventional FEM method. It is stable under extreme deformation, external force or large timestep size. And we can readily handle various user constraints in Euclidean space.