Title
Aspherical particle models for molecular dynamics simulation
Abstract
In traditional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, atoms and coarse-grained particles are modeled as point masses interacting via isotropic potentials. For studies where particle shape plays a vital role, more complex models are required. In this paper we describe a spectrum of approaches for modeling aspherical particles, all of which are now available (some recently) as options within the LAMMPS MD package. Broadly these include two classes of models. In the first, individual particles are aspherical, either via a pairwise anisotropic potential which implicitly assigns a simple geometric shape to each particle, or in a more general way where particles store internal state which can explicitly define a complex geometric shape. In the second class of models, individual particles are simple points or spheres, but rigid body constraints are used to create composite aspherical particles in a variety of complex shapes. We discuss parallel algorithms and associated data structures for both kinds of models, which enable dynamics simulations of aspherical particle systems across a wide range of length and time scales. We also highlight parallel performance and scalability and give a few illustrative examples of aspherical models in different contexts.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1016/j.cpc.2019.05.010
Computer Physics Communications
Keywords
Field
DocType
Molecular dynamics,Aspherical models,Discrete element models,Rigid body dynamics,Parallel algorithms,LAMMPS
Statistical physics,Isotropy,Data structure,Particle system,Mathematical analysis,Parallel algorithm,Rigid body,Molecular dynamics,Geometric shape,Particle,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
243
0010-4655
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Trung Dac Nguyen1463.70
Steven J. Plimpton226422.82