The Langevin Hull: Constant pressure and temperature dynamics for non-periodic systems

We have developed a new isobaric-isothermal (NPT) algorithm which applies an external pressure to the facets comprising the convex hull surrounding the system. A Langevin thermostat is also applied to the facets to mimic contact with an external heat bath. This new method, the "Langevin Hull", can handle heterogeneous mixtures of materials with different compressibilities. These systems are problematic for traditional affine transform methods. The Langevin Hull does not suffer from the edge effects of boundary potential methods, and allows realistic treatment of both external pressure and thermal conductivity due to the presence of an implicit solvent. We apply this method to several different systems including bare metal nanoparticles, nanoparticles in an explicit solvent, as well as clusters of liquid water. The predicted mechanical properties of these systems are in good agreement with experimental data and previous simulation work.