XFEM Paraview Plugin

Description

vtkXFEMClipPartialElements is a filter for use visualizing results produced by the extended finite element method (XFEM) using the xfem module in the MOOSE framework.

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.

Installation Instructions

Installing this plugin requires first building Paraview from source. To do this, follow these steps:

• Download and install cmake and QT (version 5.x), and add cmake to your path.

• If your environment is set up for MOOSE, it probablys sets CC to point to mpicc, which does not corretly build Paraview. Purge all modules to use the basic system environment: module purge

• Add qt to your path doing something like: export PATH=/opt/Qt5.4.2/5.4/clang_64/bin:$PATH

• Obtain the ParaView source code by cloning its git repository and initializing its submodules.

• Make a directory to contain your ParaView build and cd there (can have any name): mkdir paraview_bin cd paraview_bin

• From your build directory, run the cmake interactive configurator, giving it the path to the root of the directory that contains your Paraview source, doing something like: ccmake -D PARAVIEW_QT_VERSION:STRING=5 /path/to/paraview

• In the cmake interactive environment, you'll need to do this sequence of tasks. c tells it to configure, g tells it to generate the Makefiles: c set BUILD_TESTING to OFF. You do this by scrolling with the arrow keys to that variable, and then hitting the space key to change it. c c g

• The Makefiles are now generated, and you can run the standard make from your build directory. Build with as many processors as you want, for example: make -j 8

• You should now have a Paraview executable in the bin directory under your build directory. You can just run it from that directory. If you're on a Mac, it's buried here: bin/paraview.app/Contents/MacOS/paraview

• Once you have Paraview built from source and have verified that it works, you can build the plugin against it. To do this, go to the directory where you have the source code files for the plugin, (this directory). cd XFEMParaviewPlugin ccmake .

• Follow steps similar to those to configure and generate the Makefile for Paraview: c (get error about not finding paraview) e to exit edit ParaView_DIR to point to the Paraview build directory (where you just were) c c g

• Finally, build the plugin make

• Now that the plugin is built, you need to load it into Paraview: Fire up paraview Go to Tools->Manage Plugins Load New ... Navigate to .dylib file, select Click on the Auto Load button if desired. That will make it automatically load and be available every time you fire up your custom-built Paraview (won't affect any other Paraview installations you may have on your machine).

Usage Instructions

To use the module, 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]. Once you've done that, you can apply the XFEMClipPartialElements filter, and you should see the nonphysical parts of partial elements clipped.

Acknowledgements

This filter is based on the vtkClipDataSet filter, copyright Ken Martin, Will Schroeder, and Bill Lorensen.

Resources

XFEM Paraview Plugin Source Code Repository

Other Software

Idaho National Laboratory is a cutting edge research facility which is a constantly producing high quality research and software. Feel free to take a look at our other software and scientific offerings at:

Primary Technology Offerings Page

Supported Open Source Software

Raw Experiment Open Source Software

Unsupported Open Source Software

License

Copyright 2017 Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of the <organization> nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL BATTELLE ENERGY ALLIANCE, LLC BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Author contact information

1. Benjamin Spencer benjamin.spencer@inl.gov Idaho National Laboratory P.O. Box 1625, MS 3840 Idaho Falls, ID 83415