4.4 LAMMPS
The molecular simulations code
LAMMPS is widely used for different
applications in biology, chemistry and physics. The force field models for
the simulation program LAMMPS can be specified in
different formats. Only one is provided in the MMBZS database. This format
consists of two input files, one with the extension .mol (molecule)
and the other with the extension .int (initialization). The
mol file is a standalone file and can be used directly without
further modifications by the simulation program LAMMPS. But the
int file must be integrated in the main LAMMPS input file. Since
the int file has to be integrated, there is no strict separation
between model parameters and simulation parameters. Therefore, the
simulation parameters are indicated with "$$" in the provided
input files, these characters should be replaced by appropriate values
before the simulation.
The mol file defines the position of the individual interaction
sites and summarizes interaction sites with identical interaction parameters
into types. The interaction parameters of the individual types are then
defined in the main input file, parts of that are provided by the MMBZS
database as the int file. The following parameters are considered
interaction parameters in the simulation program LAMMPS:
- Lenard-Jones 12-6
- Point Charge
- Point Dipole
Note that the simulation program LAMMPS cannot handle point quadrupoles
directly. Therefore such need to be converted into three point charges as
described in section 3. The structure of the two input files is described
in the following.
*.mol File
The geometry of the molecular force field model is defined in the
mol file. This is done in three steps, so the molecule file can be
divided into three parts: the declaration of the molecular topology
(header), coordinates (Coords), and the types of interaction sites (Types).
The header of the file starts with a comment, indicated by the character
"#". The molecular force field files provided in the MMBZS
database have a default line specifying which chemical substance is modeled.
Subsequently, the number of interaction sites used to model the substance is
given. Since the simulation program is not only able to handle rigid models,
the parameters specific to a flexible model (number of bindings, angles,
dihedral angles) must also be specified. However, since this database
contains only rigid models, the parameters specific to a flexible model can
be set to zero. Thus the header of the mol file has the following
form:
#"Name of chemical substance" of Model Bolzmann-Zuse Society
n atoms
0 bonds
0 angles
0 dihedrals
where "n" is the number of interaction sites used to create the
corresponding force field model.
The molecular geometry is defined in the section "Coords" by
establishing a global Cartesian coordinate system in which the position of
the individual interaction sites is defined. But before the positions can be
defined, a so-called site ID must be assigned to each interaction site,
based on which the position of the site is finally defined. The site ID is a
integer number greater than zero that is uniquely assigned to a single
interaction site. To define the position of an interaction site, the site ID
is given first, followed by the Cartesian coordinates of the interaction
site. Note that only one position can be defined in a line.
The underlying units system used in LAMMPS is described in
section 4.1
.
# Site ID x-coordinate y-coordinate z-coordinate
1 x-coordinate y-coordinate z-coordinate
2 x-coordinate y-coordinate z-coordinate
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
n x-coordinate y-coordinate z-coordinate
After the positions of the individual interaction sites have been defined,
in the previous part of the mol file, the types of
interaction sites with the same interaction parameters are grouped together
into so-called "Types", which have a type ID assigned analog to the site ID.
Types
# Site ID Type ID
1 Type ID
2 Type ID
. .
. .
. .
n Type ID
This grouping references to the second input file, the int file,
in which the interaction parameters are defined, more compact, since no
multiple and identical definitions are needed.
*.int File
The geometry is fully defined in the mol file where the type ID's
are introduced. The interaction parameters of the individual types can be
defined using the type ID, which is done in the int file that has
to be integrated into the main LAMMPS input file. Before the interaction
parameters of the individual interaction sites can be defined, some
important information must be specified in the header of the file.
The int file starts as the mol file with a comment line
indicating which substance is modeled, followed by some hints for starting
the simulation in LAMMPS. Subsequently, the molecular interactions are
specified. The int input files provided by the MMBZS database by
default contain the following section:
fix \$\$ all rigid/\$\$ molecule
pair_style lj/long/dipole/long off off \$\$
pair_modify mix arithmetic
The first line, with the "fix" command, indicates that all intramolecular
interactions are not calculated by the simulation program and thus the model
is rigid. The "fix" command still has two parameters to be defined. The
first parameter is the ID of the "fix" command itself, the second indicates
which ensemble (nve, npt, nph, small, nve$/$small, nvt$/$small, npt$/$small,
nph$/$small) is used for the simulation. For more detailed information we
the reader to the
LAMMPS documentation.
In the second line the "pair_style" indicates the pairwise interactions,
which should be considered in the simulation, besides the Coulomb
interactions. In this case the Lennard-Jones 12-6 and point dipole
interactions. The parameter to be defined describes the cut-off of both
interactions. The combination rule for unlike interactions is specified in
the last line of the above section. The MMBZS database uses the modified
Lorentz-Berthelot combination rule by default.
After the interactions to be calculated have been defined, the interaction
parameters for the individual interaction sites are to be specified in the
following. Please note that the units of the parameters are defined by the
command "units" at the beginning of the input script. All LAMMPS input files
of this database are given for the setting "units metal". The units of the
generally takes place in four steps, in which the parameters of the three
possible interactions (Lennard-Jones 12-6, Charge, Point Dipole) and the
masses are specified. Thus this file can now also be divided into header and
four further parts.
In the first section "#int" the parameters for the pairwise interaction of
two site types are defined. Note that only interactions between two similar
site types need to be defined, since a combination rule is already defined
in the header of the file. An exception are site types that are not based on
the Lennard-Jones potential. The Lennard-Jones interaction parameters are
set to zero (see the example below) for such interaction sites. In addition
the character "*" indicates that this site type has no
Lennard-Jones interaction with any other site types.
#int
# typeID_1 typeID_2 epsilon sigma
pair_coeff 1 1 0.006631035704325 3.7607
pair_coeff 2 * 0.0 0.0
In the subsequent section "#charge" the point charges of the individual
interaction site types, if existing, are defined. This is done via the "set"
command:
#charge
# typeID charge
set type 2 charge 16.973857193814
set type 3 charge -33.947714387628
In the third section "#dipole" the point dipoles of the individual
interaction sites are defined, if existing. The definition of the point
dipoles is done by a vector defined in Cartesian coordinates. The
orientation of the dipole in space is described by the orientation of the
vector and the magnitude of the dipole by the length of the vector.
#dipole
# typeID x y z
set type 1 dipole 0 0 4.897
In the fourth and last section "#mass" of the .int file, the
masses of the individual interaction sites are specified by their respective
ID. Since the simulation program cannot handle massless interaction sites, a
small mass (1.0E-6) is assigned to site types that are actually massless in
the original publications of the MMBZS database.
#mass
mass 1 76.912
mass 2 1.0E-6
mass 3 1.0E-6
Example
The 'CHN'-model published by Eckl et al. in [Eckl, 2008 C] is given
as a full example for a LAMMPS input file. Note that the point quardupole of
the original model was converted into point charges, since the LAMMPS
simulation program cannot handle point quardupoles explicitly. The input
files mol and mol of this model have the following form:
CHN.mol File
#CHN Model Bolzmann-Zuse Society
5 atoms
0 bonds
0 angles
0 dihedrals
Coords
1 0.0 0.0 0.638
2 0.0 0.0 -0.9671
3 0 0 0.22055
4 0.0 0.0 0.0589
5 0 0 -0.10275
Types
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 3
CHN.int File
# Set interaction parameters for the CHN model
#
# please note the following two points:
# 1) Replace the characters: \$\$ by appropriate simulation-specific
# parameters
# 2) For the simulation use the units command with the following
# style: metal
fix \$\$ all rigid \$\$ molecule
pair_style lj/long/dipole/long off off \$\$
pair_modify mix arithmeticv
#int
pair_coeff 1 1 0.003420218415915 3.233
pair_coeff 2 2 0.00882759321054 3.445
pair_coeff 3 * 0.0 0.0
pair_coeff 4 * 0.0 0.0
#charge
set type 3 charge 8.6847196819759
set type 4 charge -17.369439363952
#dipole
set type 4 dipole 2.7306486436352 0 2.0397912993768
#mass
mass 1 14.007
mass 2 13.018
mass 3 1.0E-6
mass 4 1.0E-6