Hybrid Surface Reconstruction Technique for Automotive Applications

Abstract — Reverse engineering has become a viable technique to create a 3D virtual model of an existing physical object. It enables the reconstruction of body surfaces to create a suitable CAD model required prior to its manufacturing or improvement via simulations such as Computational Fluid Dynamics or Finite Element Analysis. Two main tools can be used in reverse engineering to recreate external surfaces from complex 3D shapes: Rapid Surfacing (RS) and Classical Surfacing (CS). RS is a fast-modelling method contrary to CS which is time-consuming but produces far higher quality surfaces. This paper describes the construction of a suitable triangulated mesh of a reverse engineered car from which body surface reconstruction can take place. RS and CS are used independently to create two distinct models which are then compared with a suggested hybrid CAD model that takes advantages of both techniques. Results show that the hybrid method reaches a balance between the two methods: it enables the construction of a suitable model with quality surfaces in a satisfactory time. Finally, CFD is used to numerically compute the drag of the reverse engineered vehicle.