[gmx-users] Pressure coupling problem

Justin A. Lemkul jalemkul at vt.edu
Mon Apr 11 23:17:59 CEST 2011



Fabian Casteblanco wrote:
> Hi,
>  
> I'm still in my first few months of using Gromacs.  I started by 
> creating an *.itp and *.top file for /Ethanol/ using CHARMM force field 
> parameters.  I made the molecule and it looked fine, put 1000 molecules 
> in a box, energy minimized it to a negative potential energy, viewed it 
> on VMD, again looks fine.  When I started running the NVT script, I set 
> it equal to a ref_T of 298 K.  It equilibrated at the temperature.  Then 
> I tried using an NPT script to equilibrate it to a ref_p of 1 bar.  This 
> is where I get the problem.  The output shows the density is close to 
> the actual experimental value of 0.789 g/cm^3.  But for some reason, my 
> pressure never gets an average of 1 bar.  It keeps oscillating, which I 
> understand is normal, but the average is always 1.3 or 1.4 bar (it seems 
> the longer I let it run, the larger the average pressure; 1.38 for 
> 50,000 steps,dt=0.002 and 1.45 for 75,000 steps,dt=0.002).  I don't 
> understand why the ref_p of 1 bar is not working when I run this NPT.mdp 
> script file.  My simple goal is to have 1000 molecules of ethanol using 
> CHARMM ff parameters at 25degC and 1 bar and somewhere near the 
> experimental density.
>  

Your equilibration period (100-150 ps) is rather short, and the systematic 
increase suggests that you're simply not equilibrated yet.

Also bear in mind that a quantity that is prone to pressure fluctuations in the 
hundreds to thousands can only be so accurate.  There was a very thorough 
discussion about the statistical significance of pressure values that are not 
equal to ref_p just some time ago.  You may want to look through the archives to 
find this discussion.

-Justin

> I would really appreciate anybody's help!  I'm new to this but I'm eager 
> to keep getting better.
>  
> Thanks.
>  
> _NVT SCRIPT  (this works fine and takes me to 298 K)_
> File Edit Options Buffers Tools Help
> title           =CHARMM ETHANOL  NVT equilibration
> ;define         =-DPOSRES       ;position restrain the protein
> ;Run parameters
> integrator      =md             ;leap-frog algorithm
> nsteps          =50000          ;2 * 50000 = 100 ps
> dt              =0.002          ;2fs
> ;Output control
> nstxout         =100            ;save coordinates every 0.2 ps
> nstvout         =100            ;save velocities every 0.2 ps
> nstenergy       =100            ;save energies every 0.2 ps
> nstlog          =100            ;update log file every 0.2 ps
> ;Bond parameters
> continuation    =no             ;first dynamics run
> constraint_algorithm=lincs      ;holonomic constraints
> constraints     =all-bonds      ;all bonds (even heavy atom-H 
> bonds)constraind
> lincs_iter      =1              ;accuracy of LINCS
> lincs_order     =4              ;also related to accuracy
> ;Neighborhood searching
> ns_type         =grid           ;search neighboring grid cells
> nstlist         =5              ;10 fs
> rlist           =1.0            ;short-range neighborlist cutoff (in nm)
> rcoulomb        =1.0            ;short-range electrostatic cutoff (in nm)
> rvdw            =1.0            ;short-range van der Waals cutoff (in nm)
> ;Electrostatics
> coulombtype     =PME            ;Particle Mesh Ewald for long-range 
> electrostat\
> ;ics
> pme_order       =4              ;cubic interpolation
> fourierspacing  =0.16           ;grid spacing for FFT
> ;Temperature coupling is on
> tcoupl          =V-rescale      ;modified Berendsen thermostat
> tc_grps         =SYSTEM   ;two coupling groups - more accurate
> tau_t           =0.1    ;0.1              ;time constant, in ps
> ref_t           =298    ;25               ;reference temperature, one 
> for each \
> ;group, in K
> ;Pressure coupling is off
> pcoupl          =no             ;no pressure coupling in NVT
> ;Periodic boundary conditions
> pbc             =xyz            ; 3-D PBC
> ;Dispersion correction
> DispCorr        =EnerPres       ;account for cut-off vdW scheme
> ;Velocity generation
> gen_vel         =yes            ;assign velocities from Maxwell distribution
> gen_temp        =25             ;temperature for Maxwell distribution
> gen_seed        =-1             ;generate a random seed
> ;END
>  
> _NPT SCRIPT_
> File Edit Options Buffers Tools Help
> title           =Ethanol npt equilibration
> ;define         =-DPOSRES       ;position restrain the protein
> ;Run parameters
> integrator      =md             ;leap-frog algorithm
> nsteps          =50000          ;2 * 50000 = 100 ps
> dt              =0.002          ;2fs
> ;Output control
> nstxout         =100            ;save coordinates every 0.2 ps
> nstvout         =100            ;save velocities every 0.2 ps
> nstenergy       =100            ;save energies every 0.2 ps
> nstlog          =100            ;update log file every 0.2 ps
> ;Bond parameters
> continuation    =yes            ;Restarting after NVT
> constraint_algorithm=lincs      ;holonomic constraints
> constraints     =all-bonds      ;all bonds (even heavy atom-H 
> bonds)constraind
> lincs_iter      =1              ;accuracy of LINCS
> lincs_order     =4              ;also related to accuracy
> ;Neighborhood searching
> ns_type         =grid           ;search neighboring grid cells
> nstlist         =5              ;10 fs
> rlist           =1.0            ;short-range neighborlist cutoff (in nm)
> rcoulomb        =1.0            ;short-range electrostatic cutoff (in nm)
> rvdw            =1.0            ;short-range van der Waals cutoff (in nm)
> ;Electrostatics
> coulombtype     =PME            ;Particle Mesh Ewald for long-range 
> electrostat\
> ;ics
> pme_order       =4              ;cubic interpolation
> fourierspacing  =0.16           ;grid spacing for FFT
> ;Temperature coupling is on
> tcoupl          =V-rescale      ;modified Berendsen thermostat
> tc-grps         =SYSTEM   ;two coupling groups - more accurate
> tau_t           =0.1;   0.1               ;time constant, in ps
> ref_t           =298;   300               ;reference temperature, one 
> for each \
> ;group, in K
> ;Pressure coupling is on
> pcoupl          =Parrinello-Rahman      ;Pressure coupling on in NPT
> pcoupltype      =isotropic              ;uniform scaling of box vectors
> tau_p           =2.0                    ;time constant, in ps
> ref_p           =1.0                    ;reference pressure, in bar
> compressibility =4.5e-5         ;isothermal compressibility of h2O, 1/bar
> ;Periodic boundary conditions
> pbc             =xyz            ; 3-D PBC
> ;Dispersion correction
> DispCorr        =EnerPres       ;account for cut-off vdW scheme
> ;Velocity generation
> gen_vel         =no             ;Velocity generation is off
> ;gen_temp       =25             ;temperature for Maxwell distribution
> ;gen_seed       =-1             ;generate a random seed
> ;END
> 
> 
> -- 
> *Best regards,*
> ** 
> *Fabian F. Casteblanco*
> *Rutgers University -- *
> *Chemical Engineering PhD Student*
> *C: +908 917 0723*
> *E:  **fabian.casteblanco at gmail.com* <mailto:fabian.casteblanco at gmail.com>
> 

-- 
========================================

Justin A. Lemkul
Ph.D. Candidate
ICTAS Doctoral Scholar
MILES-IGERT Trainee
Department of Biochemistry
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA
jalemkul[at]vt.edu | (540) 231-9080
http://www.bevanlab.biochem.vt.edu/Pages/Personal/justin

========================================



More information about the gromacs.org_gmx-users mailing list