Efficient Construction of Voxel Models for Ore Bodies Using an Improved Winding Number Algorithm and CUDA Parallel Computing

Abstract

The three-dimensional (3D) geological voxel model is essential for numerical simulation and resource calculation. However, it can be challenging due to the point in polygon test in 3D voxel modeling. The commonly used Winding number algorithm requires the manual setting of observation points and uses their relative positions to restrict the positive and negative solid angles. Therefore, we proposed the Winding number with triangle network coding (WNTC) algorithm and applied it to automatically construct a 3D voxel model of the ore body. The proposed WNTC algorithm encodes the stratum model by using the Delaunay triangulation network to constrain the index order of each vertex of the triangular plane unit. GPU parallel computing was used to optimize its computational speed. Our results demonstrated that the WNTC algorithm can greatly improve the efficiency and automation of 3D ore body modeling. Compared to the Ray casting method, it can compensate for a voxel loss of about 0.7%. We found the GPU to be 99.96% faster than the CPU, significantly improving voxel model construction speed. Additionally, this method is less affected by the complexity of the stratum model. Our study has substantial potential for similar work in 3D geological modeling and other relevant fields.