[gmx-users] potential energy NaN and strange dependence on cut-offs

Manik Mayur manik.mayur at gmail.com
Tue Sep 8 19:37:27 CEST 2009


2009/9/8 Mark Abraham <Mark.Abraham at anu.edu.au>

> Jennifer Williams wrote:
>
>> Hi users,
>>
>> I am running a very simple simulation of methane inside a pore (v.much
>> like a carbon nanotube but in my case the tube is supposed to represent
>> silica.) I keep this tube frozen.
>>
>> I start with an energy minimisation-however this runs to completion almost
>> instantly and I keep get NaN for my potential energy:
>>
>> Steepest Descents converged to machine precision in 18 steps,
>> but did not reach the requested Fmax < 10.
>> Potential Energy  =            nan
>> Maximum force     =  6.5738518e+01 on atom 2133
>> Norm of force     =  1.5461593e+00
>>
>
> This nan suggests some kind of severe atomic overlap. Reconsider your
> coordinates and the box size implied by your coordinate file.
>
> Mark
>
>
>  Otherwise the trajectory looks OK (methane moving around inside the
>> cylinder). If I go on to use the conf.gro file for an mdrun, it runs to
>> completion and generates what looks like a reasonable trajectory, however
>> the output again contains NaN i.e:
>>
>>   Energies (kJ/mol)
>>        LJ (SR)   Coulomb (SR)      Potential    Kinetic En.   Total Energy
>>            nan    0.00000e+00            nan    3.36749e+01            nan
>>  Conserved En.    Temperature Pressure (bar)
>>            nan    3.00010e+02            nan
>>
>> and calculating the Diffusion coefficient gives:
>> D[       CH4] 613.6682 (+/- 97.0563) 1e-5 cm^2/s
>>
>> If I do the same calculation but reduce the cut-offs to 0.9. I get
>>
>>   Energies (kJ/mol)
>>        LJ (SR)   Coulomb (SR)      Potential    Kinetic En.   Total Energy
>>            nan    0.00000e+00            nan    3.36750e+01            nan
>>  Conserved En.    Temperature Pressure (bar)
>>            nan    3.00011e+02            nan
>>
>> D[       CH4] 237.8712 (+/- 53.5975) 1e-5 cm^2/s
>>
>> And for a cut-off of 1.3nm I get
>>
>>   Energies (kJ/mol)
>>        LJ (SR)   Coulomb (SR)      Potential    Kinetic En.   Total Energ
>> y
>>            nan    0.00000e+00            nan    3.36737e+01            na
>> n
>>  Conserved En.    Temperature Pressure (bar)
>>            nan    2.99999e+02            nan
>>
>>
>> D[       CH4] 19.7953 (+/- 154.0168) 1e-5 cm^2/s
>>
>>
>> For this system, the cut-off shouldn?t need to be larger than 0.8 (I have
>> plotted graphs of calculated V vs r) so it is worrying that the diffusion
>> coefficient is showing such dependence on the cut-offs when they should all
>> give the same result.
>>
>> Can anyone offer any insight into this? I?ve tried changing the timestep
>> making it both larger and smaller and many other things. I?ve pasted the
>> relevant parts of my files below:
>>
>> I?m using gromacs 4.0.5 ?at the moment running in serial.
>>
>> Thanks for any advice,
>>
>> Top file
>>
>> [ defaults ]
>> ; nbfunc    comb-rule    gen-pairs    fudgeLJ    fudgeQQ
>> 1        2        yes        1.0           1.0
>> ;
>> ;
>> [ atomtypes ]
>> ;   type    mass    charge    ptype       c6            c12
>>    OSM    15.9994    0.00     A         0.2708   1.538176
>>
>> ;
>> ; Include forcefield parameters
>> #include "CH4.itp"
>> ;
>> ;
>> [ moleculetype ]
>> ;    Name    nrexcl
>> MCM    3
>> [ atoms ]
>> ;    nr    type    resnr    residue    atom    cgnr    charge
>>  mass
>> 1       OSM     1       MCM     OSM     1       0       15.9994
>> 2       OSM     1       MCM     OSM     2       0       15.9994
>> ..etc
>> 2127    OSM     1       MCM     OSM     2127    0       15.9994
>> 2128    OSM     1       MCM     OSM     2128    0       15.9994
>>
>>
>> [ system ]
>> ; Name
>> CH4 in MCM
>>
>> [ molecules ]
>> ; Compound        #mols
>> MCM                1
>> CH4                10
>>
>> CH4.itp file
>>
>> [ atomtypes ]
>> ;   type      mass    charge    ptype       c6            c12
>>    CH4    16.043     0.00     A        0.3732        1.24650457
>> ;
>> [ moleculetype ]
>> ; name  nrexcl
>> CH4        2
>>
>> [ atoms ]
>> ;   nr  type    resnr   residu  atom    cgnr    charge    mass
>> 1       CH4      1       CH4     CH4     1        0.00  16.043
>>
>>
>>
>> .mdp file
>>
>> ;
>> ;    File 'mdout.mdp' was generated
>> ;    By user: jwillia4 (353773)
>> ;    On host: vlxhead2
>> ;    At date: Fri Jun 26 15:47:37 2009
>> ;
>> ; VARIOUS PREPROCESSING OPTIONS
>> ; Preprocessor information: use cpp syntax.
>> ; e.g.: -I/home/joe/doe -I/home/mary/hoe
>> include                  = -I../top
>> ; e.g.: -DI_Want_Cookies -DMe_Too
>> define                   =
>>
>> ; RUN CONTROL PARAMETERS
>> integrator               = steep
>> ; Start time and timestep in ps
>> tinit                    = 0
>> dt                       = 0.0001
>>
>
dt = 0.1 fs are you sure??


>  nsteps                   = 100000
>> ; For exact run continuation or redoing part of a run
>> ; Part index is updated automatically on checkpointing (keeps files
>> separate)
>> simulation_part          = 1
>> init_step                = 0
>> ; mode for center of mass motion removal
>> comm-mode                = linear
>> ; number of steps for center of mass motion removal
>> nstcomm                  = 1
>> ; group(s) for center of mass motion removal
>> comm-grps                =
>>
>> ; LANGEVIN DYNAMICS OPTIONS
>> ; Friction coefficient (amu/ps) and random seed
>> bd-fric                  = 0
>> ld-seed                  = 1993
>>
>> ; ENERGY MINIMIZATION OPTIONS
>> ; Force tolerance and initial step-size
>> emtol                    =
>> emstep                   = 0.001
>> ; Max number of iterations in relax_shells
>> niter                    =
>> ; Step size (ps^2) for minimization of flexible constraints
>> fcstep                   =
>> ; Frequency of steepest descents steps when doing CG
>> nstcgsteep               =
>> nbfgscorr                =
>>
>>
>> ; OUTPUT CONTROL OPTIONS
>> ; Output frequency for coords (x), velocities (v) and forces (f)
>> nstxout                  = 100
>> nstvout                  = 100
>> nstfout                  = 0
>> ; Output frequency for energies to log file and energy file
>> nstlog                   = 100
>> nstenergy                = 100
>> ; Output frequency and precision for xtc file
>> nstxtcout                = 100
>> xtc-precision            = 100
>> ; This selects the subset of atoms for the xtc file. You can
>> ; select multiple groups. By default all atoms will be written.
>> xtc-grps                 =
>> ; Selection of energy groups
>> energygrps               =
>>
>> ; NEIGHBORSEARCHING PARAMETERS
>> ; nblist update frequency
>> nstlist                  =
>> ; ns algorithm (simple or grid)
>> ns_type                  = grid
>> ; Periodic boundary conditions: xyz, no, xy
>> pbc                      = xyz
>> periodic_molecules       = yes
>> ; nblist cut-off
>> rlist                    = 1.7
>>
>> ; OPTIONS FOR ELECTROSTATICS AND VDW
>> ; Method for doing electrostatics
>> coulombtype              = Cut-off
>> rcoulomb-switch          = 0
>> rcoulomb                 = 1.7
>> ; Relative dielectric constant for the medium and the reaction field
>> epsilon_r                =
>> epsilon_rf               =
>>
>> ; Method for doing Van der Waals
>> vdw-type                 = Cut-off
>> ; cut-off lengths
>> rvdw-switch              = 0
>> rvdw                     = 1.7
>> ; Apply long range dispersion corrections for Energy and Pressure
>> DispCorr                 = No
>> ; Extension of the potential lookup tables beyond the cut-off
>> table-extension          =
>> ; Seperate tables between energy group pairs
>> energygrp_table          =
>>
>>
>> ; Spacing for the PME/PPPM FFT grid
>> fourierspacing           = 0.12
>> ; FFT grid size, when a value is 0 fourierspacing will be used
>> fourier_nx               = 0
>> fourier_ny               = 0
>> fourier_nz               = 0
>> ; EWALD/PME/PPPM parameters
>> pme_order                =
>> ewald_rtol               = 1e-05
>> ewald_geometry           = 3d
>> epsilon_surface          = 0
>> optimize_fft             = yes
>>
>> ; IMPLICIT SOLVENT ALGORITHM
>> implicit_solvent         = No
>>
>>
>> ; OPTIONS FOR WEAK COUPLING ALGORITHMS
>> ; Temperature coupling
>> tcoupl                   = no
>> ; Groups to couple separately
>> tc-grps                  =
>> ; Time constant (ps) and reference temperature (K)
>> tau_t                    =
>> ref_t                    =
>>
>> ; Pressure coupling
>> Pcoupl                   = No
>> Pcoupltype               =
>> ; Time constant (ps), compressibility (1/bar) and reference P (bar)
>> tau-p                    =
>> compressibility          =
>> ref-p                    =
>> ; Scaling of reference coordinates, No, All or COM
>> refcoord_scaling         = no
>> ; Random seed for Andersen thermostat
>> andersen_seed            =
>>
>>
>> ; GENERATE VELOCITIES FOR STARTUP RUN
>> gen_vel                  = no
>> gen_temp                 = 300
>> gen_seed                 = 173529
>>
>> ; OPTIONS FOR BONDS
>> constraints              = none
>> ; Type of constraint algorithm
>> constraint-algorithm     = Lincs
>> ; Do not constrain the start configuration
>> continuation             = no
>> ; Use successive overrelaxation to reduce the number of shake iterations
>> Shake-SOR                = no
>> ; Relative tolerance of shake
>> shake-tol                = 0.0001
>> ; Highest order in the expansion of the constraint coupling matrix
>> lincs-order              = 4
>> ; Number of iterations in the final step of LINCS. 1 is fine for
>> ; normal simulations, but use 2 to conserve energy in NVE runs.
>> ; For energy minimization with constraints it should be 4 to 8.
>> lincs-iter               = 1
>> ; Lincs will write a warning to the stderr if in one step a bond
>> ; rotates over more degrees than
>> lincs-warnangle          = 30
>> ; Convert harmonic bonds to morse potentials
>> morse                    = no
>>
>> ; ENERGY GROUP EXCLUSIONS
>> ; Pairs of energy groups for which all non-bonded interactions are
>> excluded
>> energygrp_excl           =
>>
>>
>> ; Non-equilibrium MD stuff
>> acc-grps                 =
>> accelerate               =
>> freezegrps               = MCM
>> freezedim                = Y Y Y
>> cos-acceleration         = 0
>> deform                   =
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
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Manik Mayur
Graduate student
Microfluidics Lab
Dept. of Mechanical Engg.
IIT Kharagpur
INDIA
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