Contact at periodic boundary

Submitted by Nathan on Wed, 07/18/2018 - 02:54

Dear LIGGGHTS users,

I am wondering whether LIGGGHTS can capture particle contact at periodic boundary. Using periodic boundary condition enables particles to move continuously from one to other sides of particulate domain. If particles position very close to the boundary line, a part of their volume is out of the domain and should contact with other particles positioning at opposite side. Are these contacts considered in the current LIGGGHTS ?

Thank,

Regards,

Nathan,

Nathan | Thu, 07/19/2018 - 06:52

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your response. After looking into documents and several discussion, I found that "periodic" boundary will copy particles from this side to another (opposite) side if the center of those particles is out of the box (through Ghost Atom approach). New particles introduced to the opposite side will interact with existing particles there. However this also means that if particles (their center) have not moved out the box, they have not been duplicated yet, and they do not interact with particles located near the opposite side (boundary). Although this does not ensure a fully continuous interaction of particles at boundaries. Please correct me if I understand well.