An open-source MATLAB toolbox for 3D block cutting and 3D mesh cutting in geotechnical engineering

Abstract

This study presents a simple approach and its associated MATLAB toolbox for 3D block cutting and mesh cutting. The approach is suitable for the meshes of numerical methods including the Key Block Theory (KBT), the Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA), the Numerical Manifold Method (NMM), and the cut Finite Element Method (Cut-FEM). The strategy is based on calculations on convex bodies. It uses two different forms of representation: the geometric representation which includes vertices and faces, and the algebraic representation which consists of inequalities. The cutting was implemented on the algebraic representation, and the resulting inequalities were converted into a geometric representation. The above strategy turned out to be robust and straightforward to execute, at the cost of a general body being regarded as a combination of convex bodies. The efficiency guarantee was considered through pre-checking algorithms. The source code was provided, as well as some simple examples.