[go: up one dir, main page]
Scribd
Upload
234 views1 page

Centroid

This document discusses methods for calculating the area, volume, and centroid of polygons and polyhedrons in 2D and 3D. It presents formulas for computing the area of a polygon and volume of a polyhedron using integrals. It also provides formulas for finding the centroid coordinates of polygons and polyhedrons by applying the divergence theorem.

Uploaded by

amir_ms81
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
234 views1 page

Centroid

This document discusses methods for calculating the area, volume, and centroid of polygons and polyhedrons in 2D and 3D. It presents formulas for computing the area of a polygon and volume of a polyhedron using integrals. It also provides formulas for finding the centroid coordinates of polygons and polyhedrons by applying the divergence theorem.

Uploaded by

amir_ms81
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Dr Robert Nurnberg, Imperial College London

Copyright
c 2013. All Rights Reserved. www.ma.ic.ac.uk/~rn/centroid.pdf

Calculating the area and centroid of a polygon in 2d


1
Let {(xi , yi )}N 2
i=0 R be a closed polygon in the plane, and let the vertices be ordered counter
clockwise. Then it is well-known that the polygon encloses the area
N 1
1 X
A= (xi yi+1 xi+1 yi ) ,
2 i=0
and its centroid is given by
N 1 N 1
!T
1 X X
(xi + xi+1 ) (xi yi+1 xi+1 yi ), (yi + yi+1 ) (xi yi+1 xi+1 yi ) R2 ;
6A i=0 i=0

see e.g. paulbourke.net/geometry/polygonmesh.

Calculating the volume and centroid of a polyhedron in 3d


Similar formulas exist for the enclosed volume and centroid of a polyhedron P in R3 , but these
appear to be less well-known. In the following we assume without loss of generality that the
boundary of the polyhedron is given by a union of triangles. (More general facets can easily be
subdivided into triangles.) We stress that P need not be convex.
Let Ai , i = 0, . . . , N 1, be the N triangular faces of the polyhedron, with vertices (ai , bi , ci ),
which are assumed to be ordered counter clockwise on Ai . This means that we can define the
outer unit normal n to P on each Ai as ni = ni /|ni |, where ni = (bi ai ) (ci ai ). Then the
volume of P is given by
Z Z N 1 Z N 1
1 1 X 1 X
V = 1= xn= ai ni = ai ni ,
P 3 P 3 i=0 Ai 6 i=0
where we have used the divergence theorem, the fact that x ni is constant on each Ai , and the
fact that the area of Ai is given by 12 |ni |.
Let c R3 denote the centroid of P , i.e. c = V1 P x. Applying the divergence theorem
R

once again, and on denoting the standard basis in R3 by {e1 , e2 , e3 }, we obtain for the three
coordinates of the centroid that
Z N 1 Z
1 1 2 1 X
c ed = (x ed ) (n ed ) = (x ed )2 (ni ed ) , d = 1, 2, 3 .
V P 2 2V i=0 Ai
It remains to compute that
Z
1
(x ed )2 (ni ed ) = ni ed [ 21 (ai + bi ) ed ]2 + [ 12 (bi + ci ) ed ]2 + [ 12 (ci + ai ) ed ]2

Ai 6
1
ni ed [(ai + bi ) ed ]2 + [(bi + ci ) ed ]2 + [(ci + ai ) ed ]2 ,

=
24
where we have observed that the integrand is a quadratic function on Ai , so that the standard
midpoint sampling quadrature formula for triangles yields the integral exactly, see e.g. [1].

References
[1] A. H. Stroud, Approximate calculation of multiple integrals, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood
Cliffs, N. J., 1971.

You might also like