Pressure molecular dynamic simulation

An algorithm for performing a constant-pressure molecular dynamics simulation that resolves some unphysical observations in the extended system (Andersen s) method and Berendsen s methods was developed by Feller et al. [29]. This approach replaces the deterministic equations of motion with the piston degree of freedom added to the Langevin equations of motion. This eliminates the unphysical fluctuation of the volume associated with the piston mass. In addition, Klein and coworkers [30] present an advanced constant-pressure method to overcome an unphysical dependence of the choice of lattice in generated trajectories. 

Feller, S., Zhang, Y., Pastor, R., Brooks, B. Constant pressure molecular dynamics simulation The Langevin piston method. J. Chem. Phys. 1995,103, 4613-21. 

Recent progress in X-ray diffraction of protein crystals in the diamond anvil cell will also make it possible to obtain quantitative information on the cavities [42, 43]. Optical spectroscopy [44] and neutron scattering [45] should also be valuable tools to probe the role of cavities. High-pressure molecular dynamics simulations should also allow estimating the contributions of the hydration and the cavities. High-pressure simulations on the small protein, bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, indicate an increased insertion of water into the protein interior before unfolding starts to occur [46,47]. 

Ti-wadeite, but structural similarity in the case of Zr-wadeite. These differences/ similarities influence the energetics of nucleation, with the result that it is more difficult to form a critical nucleus of Ti-wadeite. Vessal and Dickinson (1994) have undertaken both constant volume and constant pressure molecular dynamics simulations to test this hypothesis. 

Wang, J., and M. S. Gutierrez. 2010. Molecular structural transformation of 2 1 clay minerals by a constant-pressure molecular dynamics simulation method. Journal of Nanomaterials 2010 1-13. doi 10.1155/2010/795174. 

D. Trzesniak, R. D. Lins, and W. F. van Gunsteren, Proteins Struct., Funct., Bioinf, 65,136 (2006). Protein Under Pressure Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the Arc Repressor. 

Andersen H C 1980 Molecular dynamics simulations at constant pressure and/or temperature J. Chem. 

A typical molecular dynamics simulation comprises an equflibration and a production phase. The former is necessary, as the name imphes, to ensure that the system is in equilibrium before data acquisition starts. It is useful to check the time evolution of several simulation parameters such as temperature (which is directly connected to the kinetic energy), potential energy, total energy, density (when periodic boundary conditions with constant pressure are apphed), and their root-mean-square deviations. Having these and other variables constant at the end of the equilibration phase is the prerequisite for the statistically meaningful sampling of data in the following production phase. 

The forces are calculated as part of a molecular dynamics simulation, cind so little additional effort is required to calculate the virial and thus the pressure. The forces are not routinely calculated during a Monte Carlo simulation, and so some additional effort is required to determine the pressure by this route. When calculating the pressure it is also important to check that the components of the pressure in all three directions are equal. 

The thermodynamic properties that we have considered so far, such as the internal energy, the pressure and the heat capacity are collectively known as the mechanical properties and can be routinely obtained from a Monte Carlo or molecular dynamics simulation. Other thermodynamic properties are difficult to determine accurately without resorting to special techniques. These are the so-called entropic or thermal properties the free energy, the chemical potential and the entropy itself. The difference between the mechanical emd thermal properties is that the mechanical properties are related to the derivative of the partition function whereas the thermal properties are directly related to the partition function itself. To illustrate the difference between these two classes of properties, let us consider the internal energy, U, and the Fielmholtz free energy, A. These are related to the partition function by ... 

Calculating the statistical efficiency, a. A plot of tj,a A)i,la A) against tj, shows a steep rise before j off. Here the property A corresponds to the pressure calculated from the molecular dynamics simulation of... 

Just as one may wish to specify the temperature in a molecular dynamics simulation, so may be desired to maintain the system at a constant pressure. This enables the behavior of the system to be explored as a function of the pressure, enabling one to study phenomer such as the onset of pressure-induced phase transitions. Many experimental measuremen are made under conditions of constant temperature and pressure, and so simulations in tl isothermal-isobaric ensemble are most directly relevant to experimental data. Certai structural rearrangements may be achieved more easily in an isobaric simulation than i a simulation at constant volume. Constant pressure conditions may also be importai when the number of particles in the system changes (as in some of the test particle methoc for calculating free energies and chemical potentials see Section 8.9). 

The pressure often fluctuates much more than quantities such as the total energy in constant NVE molecular dynamics simulation. This is as expected because the pressure related to the virial, which is obtained as the product of the positions and the derivativ of the potential energy function. This product, rijdf rij)/drij, changes more quickly with than does the internal energy, hence the greater fluctuation in the pressure. 

In a normal molecular dynamics simulation with repeating boundary conditions (i.e., periodic boundary condition), the volume is held fixed, whereas at constant pressure the volume of the system must fluemate. In some simulation cases, such as simulations dealing with membranes, it is more advantageous to use the constant-pressure MD than the regular MD. Various schemes for prescribing the pressure of a molecular dynamics simulation have also been proposed and applied [23,24,28,29]. In all of these approaches it is inevitable that the system box must change its volume. 

Whenever the polymer crystal assumes a loosely packed hexagonal structure at high pressure, the ECC structure is found to be realized. Hikosaka [165] then proposed the sliding diffusion of a polymer chain as dominant transport process. Molecular dynamics simulations will be helpful for the understanding of this shding diffusion. Folding phenomena of chains are also studied intensively by Monte Carlo methods and generalizations [166,167]. 

Numerical simulation and molecular dynamics simulation on the removal action of CMP have been widely studied in recent years. In 1927, Preston [125] presented the mechanical model which relates the removal rate to the down pressure and relative velocity as follows ... 

FIG. 23 Surface pressure vs. area/molecule isotherms at 300 K from molecular dynamics simulations of Karaborni et al. (Refs. 362-365). All are for hydrocarbon chains with carboxylate-like head groups, (a) (filled squares) A 20-carbon chain, (b) (filled circles) A 16-carbon chain with a square simulation box the curve is shifted 5 A to the right, (c) (open squares) A 16-carbon chain with a nonsquare box with dimensions in the ratio xly = (3/4) to fit a hexagonal lattice the curve is shifted 5 A to the right. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. 365. Copyright 1993 American Chemical Society.)... 

In recent years, a class of methods has been developed for molecular dynamics simulations to be performed with an external pH parameter, like temperature or pressure [18, 43, 44, 70], These methods treat the solution as an infinite proton bath, and are thus referred to as constant pH molecular dynamics (PHMD). In PHMD, conformational dynamics of a protein is sampled simultaneously with the protonation states as a function of pH. As a result, protein dielectric response to the... 

Similar schemes to the above can be used in molecular dynamics simulations in other ensembles such as those at constant temperature or constant pressure (see Frenkel and Smit, and Allen and Tildesley (Further reading)). A molecular dynamics simulation is computationally much more intensive than an energy minimization. Typically with modern computers the real time sampled in a simulation run for large cells is of the order of nanoseconds (106 time steps). Dynamical processes operating on longer time-scales will thus not be revealed. 

Berger, O., Edholm, O. and Jahnig F. (1997). Molecular dynamics simulations of a fluid bilayer of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine at full hydration, constant pressure and constant temperature, Biophys. J., 72, 2002-2013. 

Tu, K., Tobias, D. J. and Klein M. L. (1995). Constant pressure and temperature molecular dynamics simulation of a fully hydrated liquid crystal phase dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayer, Biophys. J., 69, 2558-2562. 

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