[Math] Overlap volume of three spheres

3dgeometrysolid-geometry

Given three spheres and their coordinates with equal radii that are known to have a triple overlap (a volume contained within all three spheres), is there a known closed form for the calculation of this volume?

Relevant: The two sphere case on Mathworld.

Update: There seems to be a paper that discuss this exact question in general for $n$ three-dimensional spheres. Unfortunately it is behind a paywall that I don't have access to. I'm putting the link here for future reference, please correct me in the comments if the article does not answer the question:

ANALYTICAL TREATMENT OF THE VOLUME AND SURFACE-AREA OF MOLECULES FORMED BY AN ARBITRARY COLLECTION OF UNEQUAL SPHERES INTERSECTED BY PLANES

Molecular physics [0026-8976] DODD yr:1991 vol:72 iss:6 pg:1313-1345

Lawrence R. Dodda & Doros N. Theodoroua

Best Answer

The following holds for a specific case where the volume enclosed by 3 spheres is contained within the triangle formed by the 3 sphere centers.

I am hesitant to put this answer up even though I feel it is correct, because the closed form I have found is actually quite ugly. The derivation is quite pretty but the resulting integral is ugly. I will discuss it a bit at the end.

I will post my thoughts anyways in the hope that someone can come along and simplify these formulas into a nicer form, or perhaps find a much simpler formula altogether!

Derivation

Let $T$ be the solid triangle defined by sides of length $a,b,c$. Define 3 disks of raius $r$: $D,E,F$ and let each vertex of $T$ be the center of a disk in the natural way. See figure included below (at the very bottom) for a graphic description.

Let the wedges be

$$W_1 := D \cap T$$ $$W_2 := E \cap T$$ $$W_3 := F \cap T$$

Let the lenses be

$$L_1 := D \cap E$$ $$L_2 := E \cap F$$ $$L_3 := F \cap D$$

and let the rounded triangle be

$$ R := D \cap E \cap F .$$

It should be noted that each $L_i$ is bisected by a side of $T$. That is

$$ \left| L_i \cap T \right| = \left| L_i \cap \bar{T} \right| $$ where $\bar{T}$ denotes the compliment of $T$ and $| \cdot |$ denotes area. So naturally, define the half-lenses

$$H_1 := T \cap L_1 $$ $$H_2 := T \cap L_2 $$ $$H_3 := T \cap L_3 $$

Let $$ f(r) = \left| R \right| $$, it follows that the volume $V$ contained in the overlap of 3 spheres with equal radii $r_s$ is equal to

$$ V = 2 \int _0 ^{m} f\left(\sqrt{r_s^2-h^2}\right) dh$$

where $m = \sqrt{r_s^2 - \left( \frac {\max\{a,b,c\}} {2} \right)^2}.$

It remains to find a closed form of $f(r)$. We can find one applying the inclusion exclusion principle as

$$ f(r) = |T| - \sum_i |W_i| + \sum_i |H_i| $$

We have $$\sum |W_i| = \frac{\pi}{2} r^2$$

since the sum of the internal angles of $T$ is $\pi.$

By Heron's elegant formula we have

$$ |T| = \sqrt{s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}$$ where $s = \frac{1}{2} (a+b+c).$

Lastly, we can compute the area of each half-lense with

$$|H_i| = r^2 \cos^{-1} \left( \frac{d_i}{2r} \right) - \frac{1}{4} d_i \sqrt{4r^2-d_i}$$ where $d_i = c,b,a$ for $i=1,2,3$ using the formulas for lenses but halved.

Discussion

This seems to be a closed form, as the most difficult integrals to compute, namely those corresponding to the $|H_i|$ terms are found to have a closed form as per a quick query here and here on wolfram's alpha.

But because these indefinite integrals are so ugly, I fear this closed form has little practical use unless a simplification or other formula can be found!

Though one may still be able to find a tight upper and lower bound by simplifiying/approximating these ugly integrals.

Figure depicting 3 disks intersecting

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