Rigid Body Dynamics in Ambient Fluids
We present a novel framework for rigid body dynamics in ambient media, such as air or water, enabling the reproduction of complex motion phenomena of objects without requiring computational fluid dynamics simulations. Our method computes the added mass of the fluid and estimates dynamic pressure forces from the surface slip velocity, replacing shape-specific drag and lift coefficients with a geometry-driven pressure computation. A physically motivated flow separation criterion then estimates where the fluid detaches from the body surface, governed by a single free parameter with a clear physical interpretation. Our method is the first within the rigid body dynamics context to reproduce the full range of falling plate behaviors: fluttering, tumbling, chaotic and steady modes, as well as phenomena such as the Magnus effect and the flight dynamics of an American football (tight spiral pass paradox). The resulting algorithm requires only surface force evaluations at runtime and integrates seamlessly into existing physics engines for fast simulation.