Fast distance computation between cylinders for the design of mold temperature control systems

Optimization algorithms for the design of mold temperature control systems based on deep-hole bores have to assure that the minimal distances between the bores meet given safety margins. If the bores are geometrically modeled as cylinders, this leads to the necessity of determining the minimal Euclidean distances between cylinders and testing them against the corresponding margins. In this paper a very fast and reliable algorithm for the distance computation between cylinders is introduced, which has been developed due to the run-time requirements of the problem at hand.