A computational model for organism growth based on surface mesh generation

The generation of curvilinear coordinate meshes has been a powerful tool in computational fluid dynamics calculation in the computational modelling of the fluid flows around complex bodies, such as an airfoil or a complete aircraft. This same technique may be applied to many other computational models. In this work the approach is used as part of a computational model to generate simple geometries associated with biological forms or organisms. The model adopted was first proposed by Cummings and simulates morphogenesis in terms of the geometrical changes occurring during the growth and development of simple organisms. This model depends on the generation of a curvilinear coordinate mesh on the surface of an organism. Previous work has concentrated on the model and its use in generating axisymmetric shapes that are simple models of elementary 'organisms'. In this work we describe how the model may be extended to geometrical symmetry breaking. This paper describes the methodology of this extension and demonstrates it in the simulation of tentacle growth. The resulting computational technique makes it possible to link models of cell bio-chemistry and surface deformation. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.