[gmx-users] Simulating infinite polymer crystal structure

David van der Spoel spoel at xray.bmc.uu.se
Thu Dec 29 19:58:02 CET 2005


Malin Bergenstråhle wrote:
> Yes, I have minimized the system initially and I use quite a small 
> timestep of 1 fs. I have also tried to decrease the timestep even more 
> but it does not help.
> I use normal MD with Berendsen thermostat at 298 K.
> 
> What is strange is that it is sometimes possible to simulate a couple of 
> ns without problem, but then suddenly these rotations start and then it 
> is almost impossible to continue with that structure.
> 

it could be a problem in the topology, that only shows occasionally. Do 
you happen to have 1-4 interactions between groups that only have 
Coulomb attraction? An example such might be a protonated acid, where 
the H on one O might be fatally attracted to the other O.

> Malin
> 
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I don't have any experience with polymers, but these sorts of errors
> often happen when forces get too large for some reason. Have you
> minimized your system well initially? What timestep are you using? Are
> you just running simple MD, and with what thermostat? Sometimes using
> a smaller timestep can help.
> 
> David
> 
> 
> On 12/29/05, Malin Bergenstråhle <malbe at kth.se> wrote:
> 
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I am trying to simulate a system consisting of 16 infinite polymer
>>> chains in a crystal structure.
>>> I have a lot of troubles with simulations crashing due to Lincs
>>> complaining about rotating bonds (see dump from a typical logfile 
>>> below).
>>>
>>> My system is organized with the 16 chains in 4 layers with 4 chains
>>> each. The two central layers are position restrained to act bulk and the
>>> outer 8 chains are allowed to move.
>>> I have not been able to figure out what causes the crashes but it seems
>>> as if two atoms get very close to eachother and then suddenly one of
>>> them start rotating. I wonder if anybody has experience from simulating
>>> infinite crystal polymer structures before? The polymer I am using is
>>> cellulose with 2 cellobiose units per chain.
>>>
>>> One specific thing that I wonder if it could cause such problems is that
>>> my system is not relaxed, the 2 central layers are fixed in the
>>> experimental crystal structure. Although, when I try simulating one
>>> chain it works fine and also sometimes with the whole system it works,
>>> it is just very very unreliable and when it starts crashing it is
>>> difficult to get it stable again.
>>>
>>>
>>> Any comments would be nice.
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Malin
>>>
>>>
>>> Step 47430, time 47.43 (ps)  LINCS WARNING
>>> relative constraint deviation after LINCS:
>>> max 0.028302 (between atoms 5 and 6) rms 0.000658
>>> bonds that rotated more than 30 degrees:
>>>  atom 1 atom 2  angle  previous, current, constraint length
>>>       4      5   46.2    0.1435   0.1424      0.1435
>>>       5      6   67.2    0.1000   0.1028      0.1000
>>>      81     82   47.6    0.1000   0.1012      0.1000
>>>
>>> Step 47431, time 47.431 (ps)  LINCS WARNING
>>> relative constraint deviation after LINCS:
>>> max 0.076858 (between atoms 5 and 6) rms 0.001591
>>> bonds that rotated more than 30 degrees:
>>>  atom 1 atom 2  angle  previous, current, constraint length
>>>       4      5   35.6    0.1424   0.1424      0.1435
>>>       5      6   94.5    0.1028   0.1077      0.1000
>>>      81     82   45.8    0.1012   0.1001      0.1000
>>>
>>> Step 47432, time 47.432 (ps)  LINCS WARNING
>>> relative constraint deviation after LINCS:
>>> max 12.802402 (between atoms 4 and 5) rms 0.411134
>>> bonds that rotated more than 30 degrees:
>>>  atom 1 atom 2  angle  previous, current, constraint length
>>>       1      2   94.6    0.1435   0.2582      0.1435
>>>       1      7   36.8    0.1520   0.1925      0.1520
>>>      56      1   48.5    0.1435   0.2066      0.1435
>>>       2      3  100.5    0.1435   0.6530      0.1435
>>>       3      4  102.7    0.1519   0.5980      0.1520
>>>       3     13   98.9    0.1520   0.7495      0.1520
>>>       4      5   94.6    0.1424   1.9806      0.1435
>>>       5      6   96.0    0.1077   0.9881      0.1000
>>>       7     10   52.7    0.1520   0.2386      0.1520
>>>      10     11   55.6    0.1435   0.2351      0.1435
>>>      10     13   95.9    0.1520   1.0668      0.1520
>>>      13     14  100.1    0.1435   0.6664      0.1435
>>>      14     15   94.4    0.1435   1.2567      0.1435
>>>      15     16  105.2    0.1435   0.4742      0.1435
>>>      15     21  100.7    0.1520   0.3847      0.1520
>>>      16     17   73.0    0.1435   0.2353      0.1435
>>>      17     18   31.8    0.1520   0.1793      0.1520
>>>      21     22   73.8    0.1435   0.2583      0.1435
>>>      21     24   67.5    0.1520   0.2454      0.1520
>>>      22     23   54.5    0.1000   0.1558      0.1000
>>>      24     25   31.7    0.1435   0.1708      0.1435
>>>      81     82   42.0    0.1001   0.0990      0.1000
>>> Constraint error in algorithm Lincs at step 47432
>>> Wrote pdb files with previous and current coordinates
>>>
>>> Step 47433, time 47.433 (ps)  LINCS WARNING
>>> relative constraint deviation after LINCS:
>>> max 134.873215 (between atoms 21 and 22) rms 6.610656
>>> bonds that rotated more than 30 degrees:
>>>  atom 1 atom 2  angle  previous, current, constraint length
>>>       1      2  113.0    0.2582   0.7208      0.1435
>>>       1      7  103.7    0.1925   4.1936      0.1520
>>>      56      1  120.7    0.2066   0.6874      0.1435
>>>       2      3  150.9    0.6530   0.9020      0.1435
>>>       3      4  102.2    0.5980   3.6322      0.1520
>>>       3     13   56.7    0.7495   1.9560      0.1520
>>>       4      5   88.7    1.9806   5.8247      0.1435
>>>       5      6   95.7    0.9881   0.5766      0.1000
>>>       7      8   81.8    0.1581   3.7805      0.1435
>>>       7     10  104.3    0.2386   3.2932      0.1520
>>>       8      9  129.8    0.1026   0.4876      0.1000
>>>      10     11  106.4    0.2351   1.2224      0.1435
>>>      10     13   85.0    1.0668   0.9720      0.1520
>>>      11     12   93.3    0.1030   0.0923      0.1000
>>>      13     14   87.2    0.6664   4.4932      0.1435
>>>      14     15   71.9    1.2567   4.8085      0.1435
>>>      15     16   57.0    0.4742   3.4035      0.1435
>>>      15     21   91.6    0.3847  17.6591      0.1520
>>>      16     17  105.4    0.2353  18.8067      0.1435
>>>      17     18   90.5    0.1793  15.4891      0.1520
>>>      17     27  163.1    0.1688   4.7973      0.1520
>>>      18     19  128.8    0.1473   3.0623      0.1435
>>>      19     20  131.1    0.1004   1.4866      0.1000
>>>      21     22   59.0    0.2583  19.4978      0.1435
>>>      21     24   75.0    0.2454  18.2038      0.1520
>>>      22     23   69.8    0.1558   3.1969      0.1000
>>>      24     27   95.0    0.1705  18.0591      0.1520
>>>      25     26   95.1    0.1043   2.0528      0.1000
>>>      27     28   92.3    0.1504  11.2440      0.1435
>>>      28     29   56.5    0.1455   3.3040      0.1435
>>>      29     30   66.7    0.1439   1.4205      0.1435
>>>      29     35  115.3    0.1525   1.5023      0.1520
>>>      30     31  115.1    0.1435   0.0240      0.1435
>>>      31     41   39.6    0.1520   0.1845      0.1520
>>>      35     36  123.8    0.1436   0.2553      0.1435
>>>      35     38  125.4    0.1521   0.2678      0.1520
>>>      36     37   58.7    0.1000   0.1677      0.1000
>>>      38     39   44.9    0.1435   0.2033      0.1435
>>>      38     41   45.8    0.1520   0.2244      0.1520
>>>      44     45   49.6    0.1440   0.2112      0.1435
>>>      45     46   52.2    0.1525   0.2301      0.1520
>>>      45     55   92.2    0.1542   0.3725      0.1520
>>>      49     52   53.2    0.1524   0.2378      0.1520
>>>      52     53   54.4    0.1438   0.2240      0.1435
>>>      52     55   92.5    0.1538   0.3668      0.1520
>>>      55     56   85.8    0.1497   0.3253      0.1435
>>>      81     82   33.7    0.0990   0.0994      0.1000
>>> Constraint error in algorithm Lincs at step 47433
>>> Wrote pdb files with previous and current coordinates
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>>  
>>
> 
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-- 
David.
________________________________________________________________________
David van der Spoel, PhD, Assoc. Prof., Molecular Biophysics group,
Dept. of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University.
Husargatan 3, Box 596,  	75124 Uppsala, Sweden
phone:	46 18 471 4205		fax: 46 18 511 755
spoel at xray.bmc.uu.se	spoel at gromacs.org   http://xray.bmc.uu.se/~spoel
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