A simple simulation of colloidal substances, modeled through the collisions of hard spheres colliding in a solvent.
You'll need at least Python 3.9 and a few packages to run this simulation. To install them, run:
pip install -r requirements.txt
In main.py, you'll find a few different parameters defined in the config object:
# define simulation parameters
config = {
"size": 50, # size of simulation populated by particles
"particle_concentration": 2.5, # this controls particle spacing, must be twice particle radius
"particle_radius": 1., # radius of particles in simulation units
"particle_mass": 1., # mass, has no effect since all particles are the same
"particle_drag": 0., # multiplier for reduction in velocity at each time step
"brownian_amplitude_initial": 1, # magnitude of initial random velocity
"brownian_amplitude_continuous": 0, # adds brownian noise to particles at each step as in a gas
"timestep": .1, # higher values will give less accurate results
"show_grid": False, # requires significant render time
"show_collisions": True, # highlights particles when they collide
"show_velocities": True # maps particle velocity to color
}Play around with these to control how the simulation behaves!
To start the simulation as configured, run:
python main.py
This opens a matplotlib window. Closing this will terminate the simulation and return you to your prompt.
Once running, click a single particle to show its path through the simulation!
Here's a couple of examples of output:
Particles can be colored based on their current velocity (in config, "show_velocities": True)
And/or can be highlighted when colliding (in config, "show_collisions": True)
Here's what a particle's tracked motion looks like:
