Detection of loops and singularities of surface intersections

Two surface patches intersecting each other generally at a set of points (singularities), form open curves or closed loops. While open curves are easily located by following the boundary curves of the two patches, closed loops and singularities pose a robustness challenge since such points or loops can easily be missed by any subdivision or marching-based intersection algorithms, especially when the intersecting patches are flat and ill-positioned. This paper presents a topological method to detect the existence of closed loops or singularities when two flat surface patches intersect each other. The algorithm is based on an oriented distance function defined between two intersecting surfaces. The distance function is evaluated in a vector field to identify the existence of singular points of the distance function since these singular points indicate possible existence of closed intersection loops. The algorithm detects the existence rather than the absence of closed loops and singularities. This algorithm requires general C² parametric surfaces.