The GUI for the Surface Evolver is an online simulation tool written by Kevin Ngo in collaboration with Dr. John Blendell and Lucas Robinson at Purdue University. The original program, named Surface Evolver, not to be confused with the GUI for the Surface Evolver, is an "interactive program for the modelling of surfaces shaped by various forces and constraints" that is written by Ken Brakke. The GUI for the Surface Evolver is made through the Rappture toolkit and simplifies the process of simulating the growth of polycrystalline grains in 2D by offering users an abstraction from the command line as well as a simple way to extract useful data from the simulation. Note: This version of the src may not be the most up to date, if you intend to add features, visit https://nanoHUB.org/tools/surfevolvergui and check the most updated version first
To use the tool, you do not need to install it, simply visit https://nanoHUB.org/tools/surfevolvergui, create an account and launch the tool. Note: If you have trouble accessing the tool after creating an account - submit a ticket to support and request to use the tool. (Remember to include the reason why you are using it!)
In the case that you want to run the program locally (running the Surface Evolver in some instances is computationally expensive so running the program locally often will speed up the process of simulation) or edit the source, the Rappture toolkit must be installed and it can be found at https://nanohub.org/infrastructure/rappture/wiki/rappture_install_linux. The website offers installation guides for Linux/macOS systems as well as documentation for the Rappture interface.
If you created a nanoHUB account, you can simply click "Launch Tool" to use it. If you manually installed the Rappture toolkit, clone this directory and use the shell to navigate to the directory named "rappture". Once in this directory, type "rappture" to run the tool. The command "rappture" will invoke the "tool.xml" file in the directory.
The tool has default parameters, which are simply the type of simulation, the number of grains, and if you wish to enable color or not (for the images of grains before and after). These parameters can be changed; however, note that enabling color will slow down the speed of the simulation.
Type of Simulation: The tool currently supports modeling for 3phase-isotropic, 3phase-mm4-cos, and 3phase-mm4-octagon grains, simply select which type of simulation you want to model.
Number of Grains: "Number of Grains" is the number of grains that you want to start off with that is distributed accross the plane via a Voronoi Tesselation. (Default is 100 grains)
Number of Iterations: "Number of Iterations" is the number of times that you want the grains to grow. There are periods to the grain growth, and you can specify how many iterations of "g" to run. The higher the number, the longer the simulation will run and the shape of the grains will naturally be at a lower energy-state. (Default is 1 iteration)
Enable Color: "Enable Color" is a toggle button that allows a user to see images of the grains in color, rather than with no color. This must be checked off or on before running the simulation and cannot be changed during the simulation. (Default is no color) Note: Enabling color will slow down the computational speed of the simulation.
Once you have edited these parameters to your heart's content, simly click "Simulate"!
The GUI for the Surface Evolver was made to simplify the process of running and to study the growth of crystal grains. To do this, there are many ways to view/download the information gathered during the simulation. The tool offers several graphs, all of which the data or the image of the graph can be downloaded.
Grains Before: is a static image of the plane before running the simulation.
Grains After: is a static image of the plane after running the simulation.
Area vs. Iterations of "g" in Surface Evolver: is a curve representing the total area of the colored grains (in this case grains come in three different orientations, marked by color, being either: red, green or white), with respect to Iterations of "g" in Surface Evolver.
Number of Grains vs. Iterations of "g" in Surface Evolver: is a curve representing the total number of grains respect to Iterations of "g" in Surface Evolver.
Average Number of Sides per Grain vs. Iterations of "g" in Surface Evolver: is a curve representing the average number of sides for each colored grain, with respect to Iterations of "g" in Surface Evolver.
Average Curvature per Grain vs. Iterations of "g" in Surface Evolver: is a curve representing the average energy per grain, with respect Iterations of "g" in Surface Evolver.
To download a graph or the data points that were used to create the plot, select the graph from the drop down menu, then reopen the drop down menu and click download. It will then allow you to specify if you want a *.txt file of the data points, or a *.jpg file, which is an image of the graph.
- Kevin Ngo
- Lucas Robinson - Purdue University: SURF Mentor - Bio