Visualization of 3D geological-entities based on triangular prism

A new method for 3D visualization of geological entities based on the volume element of triangular-prism is presented in This work. This method firstly preprocesses the original drill data into grid elevation data and each layer's grids are corresponding. Then this method links the corresponding grids of two consecutive layers so as to get the quadrangular of each stratum. We divide this quadrangular into two triangular-prisms and treat them as our volume element. According to the data structure of the triangular-prisms the author proposed, This work divides the cutting condition of triangular-prism into three types, which are full-cutting, peculiar-cutting and pseudo-cutting. The characteristics and the detailed triangular-prism cutting forms of each cutting type are also proposed in This work. The author uses this method to simulate the 3D geological-entities of a coalmine in Huainan China and gets a satisfying result.