A Brief User's Guide and Developer's Introduction to OpenKIM

Ryan S. Elliott and Ellad B. Tadmor

Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Minnesota

The Open Knowledgebase of Interatomic Models (OpenKIM) contains, in part, a suite of curated interatomic potentials (Models) that are freely available (at https://openkim.org) for use in interatomic simulations by materials researchers and scientists across the world. OpenKIM Models may be used with any Simulator that conforms to the KIM Application Programming Interface (KIM API), including LAMMPS, ASE and ASAP, IMD, GULP, DL_POLY, and others.

The first part of this presentation will provide practical instructions for how a user may obtain OpenKIM Models on their computing system and use these with their preferred Simulator. In particular, LAMMPS/OpenKIM setup and usage will be a focus of the discussion. The second part of this presentation will provide an overview of the KIM API software package as an introduction for new and/or aspiring Model and Simulator developers.