Hello, I hope this message finds you well! I'm running a pretty simple simulation of a polyethylene melt (N = 100, 50 chains in the simulation, T = 500K, P = 1atm, NPT ensemble, dt = 1 fs, OPLS-AA FF). My simulations are exhibiting large, unstable volume fluctuations when I use the combination of the Parrinello-Rahman barostat and pairtype = 1 for 1-4 pairs. I don't see this behavior with {PR barostat and pairtype = 2} or {Berendsen barostat and pairtype = 1}.
I've specified the 1-4 pairs explicitly in the "[ pairs ]" section and set "gen_pairs" to "yes" in the defaults section. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but here are the troubleshooting steps I've tried: 1) ensure the simulation is equilibrated (up to 100 nanoseconds with Berendsen barostat beforehand, which is more than plenty I believe); 2) use a smaller time step (down to 0.01 fs); 3) increase the pressure coupling time constant (up to 10 ps); 4) using both GROMACS 2018 and GROMACS 2019. As far as energies go, I don't think there are worryingly large terms that would blow the simulation up. Here's an example prepared with `gmx energy`: Time (ps) Bond G96Angle RB LJ-14 Coulomb-14 LJ (SR) Coulomb (SR) Total Energy Conserved En. Volume Density 0 3.10E+04 5.40E+04 2.29E+04 8.76E+03 -1.66E+03 -4.71E+03 5.27E+03 2.17E+05 2.17E+05 291.0 400.8 2 5.11E+04 5.71E+04 8.24E+03 5.48E+02 -3.00E+03 -3.68E+03 9.01E+03 2.12E+05 1.02E+06 3720.8 31.3 4 2.56E+03 9.53E+03 8.18E+03 4.80E+03 -4.16E+03 -4.27E+03 9.40E+03 1.19E+05 1.25E+06 21855.1 5.3 6 4.76E+03 1.48E+04 1.15E+04 5.36E+03 -3.71E+03 -4.02E+03 8.68E+03 1.31E+05 1.52E+06 88422.7 1.3 8 6.58E+03 2.07E+04 1.48E+04 6.13E+03 -3.27E+03 -4.02E+03 7.95E+03 1.44E+05 1.80E+06 246764.8 0.5 10 1.05E+04 2.80E+04 1.64E+04 6.46E+03 -3.03E+03 -3.98E+03 7.61E+03 1.57E+05 2.08E+06 538599.2 0.2 Eventually, the volume becomes unphysically large and the density extremely low. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here (sorry for yet another "my simulation is blowing up" question), so any insight into other steps I could try would be greatly appreciated. If I can provide any additional information (e.g. topology/mdp files), just let me know. Thanks, Wes -- Gromacs Users mailing list * Please search the archive at http://www.gromacs.org/Support/Mailing_Lists/GMX-Users_List before posting! * Can't post? Read http://www.gromacs.org/Support/Mailing_Lists * For (un)subscribe requests visit https://maillist.sys.kth.se/mailman/listinfo/gromacs.org_gmx-users or send a mail to gmx-users-requ...@gromacs.org.