Shear Modulus of Granular Lattice

LAMMPS LAMMPS Beginners
1

Hello all. Thank you for your time. I am new to LAMMPS, so I appreciate any and all advice.

I am trying to calculate the shear modulus of a 2D granular hexagonal lattice. My simulation has fixed x and y boundaries. I have looked through this forum (and in the LAMMPS shear example) and I believe all of the methods of calculating shear involve periodic boundaries. Is it possible in LAMMPS to calculate the shear modulus of the entire system by applying forces on the simulation walls? Or is it required to use a periodic boundary to calculate shear?

I want to, for example, calculate the shear modulus when the angle of the simulation box is at 45 degrees.

Apologies if this is an obvious question and thanks again for any advice!

2

Yes, there is no reason one can’t measure elastic properties in LAMMPS using non-periodic boundary conditions (that is, after all, how it’s done experimentally). Periodic boundaries are often just convenient and remove wall effects.