The MOOSE XFEM implementation uses the phantom node technique, in which elements traversed by a discontinuity are split into two partial elements, each containing physical and non-physical material.
This code generates two sets of elemental variables: `xfem_cut_origin_[0-2]` and `xfem_cut_normal_[0-2]`, which define the origin and normal of a cutting plane to be applied to each partial element. If these both contain nonzero values, this filter will cut off the non-physical portions of those elements.
It is necessary to define the cut planes in this way rather than using a global signed distance function because a global signed distance function has ambiguities at crack tips, where two partial elements share a common edge or face.
The following two images show the mesh before and after the clipping process, with the physical portions of the domain shown in orange and the non-physical portions shown in grey before clipping:
Usage Instructions
To use the plugin, load in all variables coming from an XFEM results file. The ones the plugin needs are called: xfem_cut_origin_[xyz] and xfem_cut_normal_[xyz]. These are generated automatically by MOOSE models using XFEM. Once you've done that, you can apply the MooseXfemClip filter, and you should see the nonphysical parts of partial elements clipped.To correctly visualize the results on a mesh with magnified deformation, apply the "Warp" filter after applying this filter.