Visual Simulation of Magnetic Fluids

In this paper, we focus on simulation of magnetic fluids. Magnetic fluids behave as both fluids and as magnetic bodies, and these characteristics allow them to generate ‘spike-like’ shapes along a magnetic field. Magnetic fluids are popular materials for use in works of art. Our goal is to simulate such works of art. In the field of electromagnetic hydrodynamics, many methods have also been proposed for simulating such spike shapes based on numerical fluid analysis. However, those methods are computationally expensive and they typically require tens of hours just to simulate a single spike. We propose a more efficient method by combining a procedural approach and the SPH method (smoothed particle hydrodynamics). Our method simulates overall behaviors of the magnetic fluids using the SPH method and then synthesizes the spike shapes by using the procedural approach. We demonstrate our method can generate visually plausible results within a reasonable computational cost.