Wire frame: A reliable approach to build sealed engineering geological models

The technique of 3D geological modeling (3DGM) is an effective tool for representing complex geological objects. In order to improve the accuracy of geological models applied in numerical simulation methods such as finite elements and finite differences, we can use 3DGM as a modeling tool. To do this, however, 3DGMmust provide the ability to model geological and artificial objects in a unified way, and its geological model must be seamless for mesh generation. We present the concept of a sealed engineering geological model (SEGM), and describe its topological representation. Three kinds of conditions: geometric continuity, topological consistency and geological consistency, which must be satisfied by SEGM, are discussed in detail. A new method for constructing an SEGM based on a wire frame is proposed. It includes three main components: wire frame construction, interface modification and reconstruction, and block tracing. Building a unitary wire frame, which is composed of many simple arcs and connects all interfaces seamlessly, is the key of this method. An algorithm, involving two intersections computations and partition of simple arcs, is proposed for building a wire frame. Additionally, we also propose a local iterative algorithm for computing fault traces. As an example, we build an SEGM for the dam area of a hydraulic engineering project in the HuNan province of China. & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.