Superellipsoid-based, Real Symmetric Traceless Tensor Glyphs Motivated by Nematic Liquid Crystal Alignment Visualization

Author

Jankun-Kelly, T.J. ; Ketan Mehta

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Eng., Mississippi State Univ., MS

Volume

12

Issue

5

fYear

2006

Firstpage

1197

Lastpage

1204

Abstract

A glyph-based method for visualizing the nematic liquid crystal alignment tensor is introduced. Unlike previous approaches, the glyph is based upon physically-linked metrics, not offsets of the eigenvalues. These metrics, combined with a set of superellipsoid shapes, communicate both the strength of the crystal´s uniaxial alignment and the amount of biaxiality. With small modifications, our approach can visualize any real symmetric traceless tensor

Keywords

data visualisation; eigenvalues and eigenfunctions; nematic liquid crystals; physics computing; tensors; eigenvalues; nematic liquid crystal alignment tensor visualization; superellipsoid-based real symmetric traceless tensor glyphs; Computer graphics; Crystalline materials; Crystallization; Eigenvalues and eigenfunctions; Liquid crystal displays; Liquid crystals; Shape; Symmetric matrices; Tensile stress; Visualization; nematic liquid crystals; scientific visualization; symmetric traceless tensor; tensor visualization;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1077-2626

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TVCG.2006.181

Filename

4015482