How to pass 3D surfaces over each other?

Hi, I'm trying to pass a rough 3D surface over a smooth surface to essentially simulate a grinding process. Ideally the code would allow me to manually step through the process to see visualize it better.

Anything helps, thank you!

Here is the rough surface:

Here is the code that generated the rough surface:

close all   % closes open graphs
clc         % clears console / cmd window
rng default % keeps RNG seed constant
clear all

M = zeros(100,100);     % initial matrix
gritDensity = 0.002;    % grit per area
N = 50                  % number of grit // % size(M,1).*size(M,2).*gritDensity;
sigma = 2;              % stdev (width)
mu = 5;                 % median

[x,y] = meshgrid(1:size(M,1),1:size(M,2)); % creates grid

for k = 1:N
   
    % random location of grit
    xc = randi(size(M,1));  % picks random location on x axis between 0 and max value
    yc = randi(size(M,2));  % picks random location on y axis between 0 and max value
    
    r = normrnd(mu,sigma);          % radius, rand/randn/normrand?
    s = r^2-((x-xc).^2+(y-yc).^2);  % equation for circle
    b = s>=0;                       % checks if 's' is a positive number
    M(b) = max(M(b),sqrt(s(b)));    % indexes boolean result into the matrix M, creates "blanket" effect
    
end

surf(M)
axis equal
shading faceted

Answer 1

[AKennedy]

To simulate a grinding process where a rough surface moves over a smooth surface, you can visualize the interaction by overlaying the surfaces and manually stepping through the process.

1. Create the Smooth Surface: Define a smooth surface to represent the base material.
2. Overlay the Rough Surface: Use a loop to simulate the rough surface passing over the smooth surface. You can visualize this by updating the position of the rough surface incrementally.
3. Visualize the Process: Use pause to step through the simulation manually.

% Generate rough surface with the code you have

% Generate a smooth surface (e.g., a plane)
smoothSurface = zeros(size(M));

% Visualization parameters
numSteps = 20; % Number of steps for the rough surface to move
stepSize = 5; % Step size for moving the rough surface

% Create a figure
figure;
hold on;

% Loop to simulate the grinding process
for step = 1:numSteps
    % Clear the previous plot
    clf;
    
    % Plot the smooth surface
    surf(x, y, smoothSurface, 'FaceAlpha', 0.5, 'EdgeColor', 'none');
    hold on;
    
    % Calculate the offset for the rough surface
    offsetX = stepSize * (step - 1);
    offsetY = stepSize * (step - 1);
    
    % Plot the rough surface with an offset
    surf(x + offsetX, y + offsetY, M, 'EdgeColor', 'none');
    
    % Set plot properties
    axis equal;
    shading interp;
    title(['Step ', num2str(step)]);
    xlabel('X');
    ylabel('Y');
    zlabel('Z');
    
    % Pause to manually step through the process
    pause(0.5); % Adjust the pause duration as needed
end

hold off;

The rough surface is moved over the smooth surface by incrementally changing its position using offsetX and offsetY. Adjust the pause duration and numSteps as needed to better visualize the grinding process.