[gmx-users] Energy Minimisation and Equilibration Problems

Bruce D. Ray brucedray at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 7 00:48:55 CEST 2009


On Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 4:08:18 PM, Nancy <nancy5villa at gmail.com> wrote:

 
> I have attempted to perform energy minimisation from scratch again, and these are the
> commands that I am using to do so:
> 
> $ .../topolbuild1_2_1/src/topolbuild -n ethanediol -dir .../topolbuild1_2_1/dat/gromacs -ff gmx53a6
> 
> which generates the files:
> 
> ethanediol.gro
> ethanediol.log
> ethanediolMOL.mol2
> ethanediol.top
> ffethanediol.itp
> posreethanediol.itp
> 
> in the "ethanediol.log" file I noticed the following lines with asterisks:
> 
> ========================================
>     Angles Force Field Results
> Angle        Atoms        force    angle     method measured
>    1   H12-   C1-  H11   ******   ******   ******    109.403
>    2    C2-   C1-  H11   ******   ******   ******    109.456
> 
   3    O1-   C1-  H11   ******   ******   ******    109.438
>    4    C2-   C1-  H12   ******   ******   ******    109.537
>    5    O1-   C1-  H12   ******   ******   ******    109.468
>    6    O1-   C1-   C2    320.0   109.50        1    109.526
> 
   7    C1-   C2-   O2    320.0   109.50        1    109.526
>    8    C1-   C2-  H22   ******   ******   ******    109.453
>    9    C1-   C2-  H21   ******   ******   ******    109.537
>   10   H22-   C2-   O2   ******   ******   ******    109.439
> 
  11   H21-   C2-   O2   ******   ******   ******    109.468
>   12    C2-   O2-  HO2    450.0   109.50        1    106.864
>   13   H21-   C2-  H22   ******   ******   ******    109.404
>   14    C1-   O1-  HO1    450.0   109.50        1    106.864
> 
========================================

These are fine.  Only the nonpolar hydrogens lack parameters and they are removed from
consideration in the final topology because this is a united atoms model force field.

> I then enlarge the box and solvate the molecule:
> 
> $ editconf -f ethanediol.gro -o ethanediol_box.gro -box 3 3 3 -c
> 
> $ genbox -cp ethanediol_box.gro -cs spc216.gro -o ethanediol_solv.gro -p ethanediol.top -box 3 3 3
> 
> There are 2679 atoms (891 waters and 1 ethanediol).  I then configure the minimisation with grompp:
> 
> $ grompp -f minim.mdp -c ethanediol_solv.gro -p ethanediol.top -o em.tpr
> 
> using the following .mdp file:
> 
> ========================================
> define        = -DFLEXIBLE

Just out of curiosity, why are you defining flexible waters at this point?

> integrator    = steep
> emtol        = 10.0
> emstep          = 0.1
> nsteps        = 15000
> 
> nstlist        = 1
> ns_type        = grid
> 
rlist        = 1.0
> coulombtype    = PME
> rcoulomb_switch    = 1.0
> rvdw_switch    = 1.3
> pbc        = xyz
> 
> pme_order    = 4
> constraints     = none
> 
> nstxout        = 1
> nstvout        = 1
> nstenergy    = 1
> 
nstlog        = 1
> nstcomm         = 1
> Tcoupl          = no
> Pcoupl          = no
> gen_vel         = no
> ========================================
> 
> I then run the simulation for 15,000 steps:
> 
> $ mdrun -v -deffnm em
> 
> the last few lines of output are as follows:
> 
> ========================================
> Step=14991, Dmax= 5.3e-06 nm, Epot= -6.24538e+04 Fmax= 2.50258e+04, atom= 2397
> Step=14992, Dmax= 6.4e-06 nm, Epot= -6.24539e+04 Fmax= 3.52982e+04, atom= 1171
> 
Step=14993, Dmax= 7.6e-06 nm, Epot= -6.24540e+04 Fmax= 3.71731e+04, atom= 2397
> Step=14994, Dmax= 9.2e-06 nm, Epot= -6.24540e+04 Fmax= 4.93409e+04, atom= 1171
> Step=14995, Dmax= 1.1e-05 nm, Epot= -6.24541e+04 Fmax= 5.53109e+04, atom= 2397
> 
Step=14997, Dmax= 6.6e-06 nm, Epot= -6.24546e+04 Fmax= 8.50832e+03, atom= 1171
> Step=14998, Dmax= 7.9e-06 nm, Epot= -6.24547e+04 Fmax= 6.37691e+04, atom= 2397
> Step=14999, Dmax= 9.5e-06 nm, Epot= -6.24553e+04 Fmax= 2.67488e+04, atom= 1171
> 
Step=15000, Dmax= 1.1e-05 nm, Epot= -6.24548e+04 Fmax= 8.09451e+04, atom= 2397
> writing lowest energy coordinates.
> 
> Steepest Descents did not converge to Fmax < 10 in 15001 steps.
> Potential Energy  = -6.2455254e+04
> 
Maximum force     =  2.6748828e+04 on atom 1171
> Norm of force     =  9.5851715e+02
> ========================================
> 
> After
viewing the trajectory with ngmx, I noticed that most of the motion of
the water
> molecules occurs within the first 50 picoseconds.
> 
> Please advise on how to further minimise this system.


I downloaded NSC93876 ethylene glycol as a Sybyl (.sy2) file from NCI, processed it with
dos2unix, added the missing@<TRIPOS> last line, and named it ethylene_glycol.mol2
Charge information is absent on this file as downloaded, and I did not do anything to
account for charges.  This may make my results less than useful.  I then ran the following commands:

     /usr/bdray/bin/topolbuild1_3 -dir /usr/bdray/tables -ff gmx53a6 -n glycol/ethylene_glycol
     editconf -f ethylene_glycol.gro -o ethanediol_box.gro -box 3 3 3 -c
     genbox -cp ethanediol_box.gro -cs spc216.gro -o ethanediol_solv.gro -p ethanediol.top -box 3 3 3
     grompp -f em.mdp -c ethanediol_solv.gro -p ethanediol.top -o em.tpr

File em.mdp includes:
     constraints         =  none
     integrator          =  steep
     nsteps              =  20000
     ;
     ;    Energy minimizing stuff
     ;
     emtol               =  10.0
     emstep              =  0.01
     
     nstlist             =  1
     coulombtype         =  PME
     nstcomm             =  1
     ns_type             =  grid
     rlist               =  1
     rcoulomb            =  1.0
     rvdw                =  1.3
     nstxout             =  1
     pbc                 =  xyz
     pme_order           =  4

I deliberately did not use the flexible waters model with this energy minimization
I then ran

     mdrun -v -deffnm em

I got the result:
     Stepsize too small, or no change in energy.
     Converged to machine precision,
     but not to the requested precision Fmax < 10
     
     Double precision normally gives you higher accuracy.
     You might need to increase your constraint accuracy, or turn
     off constraints alltogether (set constraints = none in mdp file)
     
     Steepest Descents converged to machine precision in 6291 steps,
     but did not reach the requested Fmax < 10.
     Potential Energy  = -4.9487391e+04
     Maximum force     =  9.0675652e+01 on atom 5
     Norm of force     =  2.5599347e+02

I note that atom 5 is part of the ethylene glycol molecule.   Furthermore, with very few
exceptions, most of the activity in the energy minimization was devoted to the ethylene
glycol molecule.  I presume that I would reach the desired Fmax if I were to use double
precision.  However, an Fmax < 90.7 would seem to me to be usable.

Perhaps the problem stems from the use of flexible waters in the energy minimization?


-- 
Bruce D. Ray, Ph.D.
Associate Scientist
IUPUI
Physics Dept.
402 N. Blackford St.
Indianapolis, IN  46202-3273



      
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