Obtaning values and plotting Lennard-Jones function
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I need to evaluate the below function which is the Lennard-Jones function defining the van der Waals forces between atoms. The function and the plot it must give are attached. Sigma and epsilon are constants in the function. I tried to write the code for it in couple of different forms and also tried to do it in MS Excel but all of those gave a curve that resembles a saturation curve. Any help would be very appreciated.
3 Comments
Star Strider
on 19 Apr 2015
Show the code you wrote. We don’t know the values of the constants or the reason your code failed.
Ugur Batir
on 19 Apr 2015
John D'Errico
on 19 Apr 2015
In fact, your plot is identical to what I produced. What you apparently don't understand is what happens for small r. The plot axes explode. So you never see the essential shape of the curve, since you went all the way down to r=1.
Try this instead:
r=3.4:0.01:10;
Accepted Answer
More Answers (4)
Star Strider
on 19 Apr 2015
I believe the information you were provided is incorrect. The equation for F actually appears to be the Lennard-Jones equation, not the van der Waals equation. Since F appears to be the integral of U w.r.t. r, and now having ‘sigma’ (I still need ‘epsilon’), this would be my approach:
U = @(e,s,r) 4*e*((s./r).^12 - (s./r).^6); % Lennard-Jones
e = 1.0; % epsilon (GUESS)
s = 3.4; % sigma
r = linspace(0.75, 2.5)*s;
U_LJ = U(e,s,r);
F_vdW = cumtrapz(U_LJ, r); % van der Waals
figure(1)
plot(r/s, U_LJ/e, '--k')
hold on
plot(r/s, (F_vdW-F_vdW(end))*s/e, '-k')
hold off
grid
axis([0.75 3 -20 4.5])
legend('Lennard-Jones \itU/\epsilon\rm', 'van der Waals \itF\sigma/\epsilon')
Subtracting the last value of ‘F_vdW’ corrects for the constant-of-integration. This produces a plot that does not exactly match the sort you posted, but is reasonably close. You will have to experiment with your equations and constants to get the correct result:

4 Comments
Star Strider
on 19 Apr 2015
I don’t have a problem approximating the curves with this code (a slight variation on my previous code), but I have the feeling that some information is missing somewhere. (It wouldn’t be the first time a paper omitted information that was important to reproducing their results.) I had to fudge the plot a bit (note the negative derivative), but I got a decent approximation to the plots you posted:
U = @(e,s,r) 24*(e/s)*(2*(s./r).^13 - (s./r).^7); % Lennard-Jones
e = 0.0556; % epsilon (GUESS)
s = 3.4; % sigma
r = linspace(0.75, 2.5)*s;
U_LJ = U(e,s,r); % L-J Evaluated
F_vdW = gradient(U_LJ, r(2)-r(1)); % van der Waals
figure(1)
plot(r/s, U_LJ/e, '--k')
hold on
plot(r/s, -F_vdW*s/e, '-k')
hold off
grid
axis([0.75 3 -3 5])
legend('Lennard-Jones \itU/\epsilon\rm', 'van der Waals \itF\sigma/\epsilon')
The new plot:

Rob Qualls
on 27 Feb 2016
Edited: Rob Qualls
on 27 Feb 2016
Thanks for posting this. Ran into a similar issue on some data crunching for a physics class, this helped a lot.
Star Strider
on 27 Feb 2016
My pleasure.
I am happy it helped. I would appreciate it if you would Vote for it.
NURSAFIKA BAHIRA JULI
on 21 Jan 2020
Hye, can i run monte carlo Simulation for LJ's model?? And how?
Ugur Batir
on 19 Apr 2015
0 votes
LATEFA ALSHAMMARY
on 9 Nov 2018
0 votes
U = @(e,s,r) 24*(e/s)*(2*(s./r).^13 - (s./r).^7); % Lennard-Jones e = 0.0556; % epsilon (GUESS) s = 3.4; % sigma r = linspace(0.75, 2.5)*s; U_LJ = U(e,s,r); % L-J Evaluated F_vdW = gradient(U_LJ, r(2)-r(1)); % van der Waals figure(1) plot(r/s, U_LJ/e, '--k') hold on plot(r/s, -F_vdW*s/e, '-k') hold off grid axis([0.75 3 -3 5]) legend('Lennard-Jones \itU/\epsilon\rm', 'van der Waals \itF\sigma/\epsilon')
algeed alshammari
on 11 Nov 2018
0 votes
I need code in matlab TO PLOTE Lennard-Jones PLESE
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