A stiffly accurate integrator for elastodynamic problems

We present a new integration algorithm for the accurate and efficient solution of stiff elastodynamic problems governed by the second-order ordinary differential equations of structural mechanics. Current methods have the shortcoming that their performance is highly dependent on the numerical stiffness of the underlying system that often leads to unrealistic behavior or a significant loss of efficiency. To overcome these limitations, we present a new integration method which is based on a mathematical reformulation of the underlying differential equations, an exponential treatment of the full nonlinear forcing operator as opposed to more standard partially implicit or exponential approaches, and the utilization of the concept of stiff accuracy which ensures that the efficiency of the simulations is significantly less sensitive to increased stiffness. As a consequence, we are able to tremendously accelerate the simulation of stiff systems compared to established integrators and significantly increase the overall accuracy. The advantageous behavior of this approach is demonstrated on a broad spectrum of complex examples like deformable bodies, textiles, bristles, and human hair. Our easily parallelizable integrator enables more complex and realistic models to be explored in visual computing without compromising efficiency.