Mixed Variational Finite Elements for Implicit, General-Purpose Simulation of Deformables

Abstract: We propose and explore a new, general-purpose method for the implicit time integration of elastica. Key to our approach is the use of a mixed variational principle. In turn its finite element discretization leads to an efficient alternating projections solver with a superset of the desirable properties of many previous fast solution strategies. This framework fits a range of elastic constitutive models and remains stable across a wide span of timestep sizes, material parameters (including problems that are quasi-static and approximately rigid). It is efficient to evaluate and easily applicable to volume, surface, and rods models. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on a number of simulated examples across all three codomains.