Use of Graph Theory to Represent Topology of a Hydraulic Manifold

摘要

A major challenge in automating the design of hydraulic Manifolds is to find an efficient method to represent the hydraulic manifold topology in a mathematical form. This representation should be able to capture a) the complex geometries in the manifold, b) connection, wall thickness and user applied constraints inside the manifold, and c) has to be efficient so that manifold can be converted to a graph and back using minimal compute resources. This paper discuses the use of graphs to form a matrix holding distance constraints between cavities and cavity/manifold surface. This technique allows converting a large manifold CAD drawing into a graph and then back to a CAD drawing almost interactively on a normal Windows Desktop computer. This paper also discusses some of the applications that employ the Transitive Closure algorithm on this representation to help users design manifolds that meet design objectives.