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free surface flow

Constructing the extension velocity or updating the signed distance of a level set

Submitted by Mikael Öhman on
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Dear all,
I had been looking forward to use level sets to keep track of the surface in a simulation, but one thing has me stumped. Since many here work with XFEM, I was hoping someone might have some valuable input.

I want to simulate flows driven by a surface tension. This will typically yield holes, which will close rapidly. At the point at which the hole disappears, the signed distance function will have a discontinuity.
I would expect this to happen in pretty much any fluid simulation, but I can't see any way to handle it.