Data reduction and knot removal for non-uniform B-spline surfaces

Abstract

B-Spline curves and surfaces are being used throughout the aircraft industry for geometric modeling. Geometric models having accurate surface representations in the non-uniform B-Spline surface format can contain very large quantities of data. The computing power required by a CAD system for visualization and analysis is directly influenced by these large amounts of data. Accordingly, a method for reducing the amount of data in a geometric model while maintaining accuracy is needed to reduce the computing power necessary to visualize and analyze a design. This thesis describes the refinement and implementation of a data reduction algorithm for non-uniform cubic B-Spline curves and non-uniform bi-cubic B-Spline surfaces. The topic of determining the significance of knots in non-uniform cubic B-Spline curves and non-uniform bi-cubic B-Spline surfaces is addressed. Also, a method for determining the order in which knots should be removed from non-uniform cubic B-Spline curves or non-uniform bi-cubic B-Spline surfaces during data reduction is presented. Finally, an algorithm for performing data reduction by removing knots from non-uniform cubic B-Spline curves and non-uniform bi-cubic B-Spline surfaces is presented.