Sublimation of Dry Ice in Water and Visual Simulation of Fog

Abstract

Dry ice, widely used in education, industry, and imaging, produces a dramatic fog when immersed in liquids like water. Despite often being showcased in videos emphasizing significant fog, the intricate sequence of events—from immersion to sublimation, bubble ascent, and fog overflow—remains largely unexplored in computer graphics. Authentically replicating this process in 3DCG poses a challenge due to unclear production methods. Our study introduces a visual simulation method for dry ice sublimation, using flames from a combustion simulation and a fog simulation considering divergence and temperature fields. The underwater representation involves a flame simulation of falling dry ice combustion, creating a rising sphere smoothed with polygons to simulate a water bubble. Using the APIC method, our simulation incorporates collisions between the vessel, dry ice, and bubbles, illustrating dry ice sublimation in water. To simulate fog, we initially create a point cloud of fog sources based on bubbles emerging from the water surface, converted to volume data. Subsequently, a lattice method simulation generates dry ice fog within the vessel, employing the original buoyancy equation proposed in this paper for the velocity field. Fog dissipation is controlled by adjusting density based on saturated water vapor content. This method allows realistic and efficient reproduction of dry ice sublimation in water and fog overflow from a vessel by adjusting parameters, expanding expressive possibilities beyond conventional downward fog flow from a spatial source.