Simulating Growth and Form

Abstract

In this section we will discuss a number of methods which have applied in modeling growth and form of marine sessile organisms. The models have been, more or less, been arranged according to level of abstraction with respect to the actual growth process, starting at the highest level of abstraction. The first section on L-system models, focuses on a method capturing the iterative structure of a modular organism into an algorithmic form, using formal languages. In the second section an alternative method for modeling the iterative structure in seaweeds is presented, based on iterative geometric constructions. In the examples shown of the L-system models and the example using iterative geometric constructions, the level of abstraction is relatively high and no model of the influence of the physical environment is present. In the third section a method, stemming from computational physics, is presented which is very suitable for modeling hydrodynamics in three-dimensional irregular geometries, as frequently found in marine sessile organisms. In the fourth section on Laplacian growth models a two-dimensional model is discussed which is in some ways intermediate between approaches such as L-systems and models which have a representation of the fluid environment.