Particle-based non-Newtonian fluid animation for melting objects

This paper presents a new visually realistic animation technique for objects that melt and flow. It simulates viscoplastic properties of materials such as metal, plastic, wax, polymer and lava. The technique consists in modeling the object by the transition of a non-Newtonian fluid with high viscosity to a liquid of low viscosity. During the melting, the viscosity is formulated using the General Newtonian fluids model, whose properties depend on the local temperature. The phase transition is then driven by the heat equation. The fluid simulation framework uses a variation of the Lagrangian method called Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. This paper also includes several schemes that improve the efficiency and the numerical stability of the equations.