Thermodynamic-Simulation

A 2nd year computing project for the undergraduate physics course at Imperial College London.

Investigating the Properties of Ideal Gases Using a 2D Thermodynamic Simulation:

Note to Users:

• The codes within these files were created using Visual Studio Code which displays graphics in a separate window by default. To generate animation on Spyder IDE, choose the inline or windowed graphics option by entering the IPython magic command:

  %matplotlib inline or %matplotlib auto

  in the console.

• If the animation still doesn't work, try changing the graphics backend:

  • Windows 10: Tools -> Preferences -> IPython console -> graphics -> graphics backend
  • macOS: python -> Preferences -> IPython console -> graphics -> graphics backend

• Change:

  • UG PCs (Windows 10 + Spyder 3.3.1): use Tkinter.
  • Windows 10 + Spyder 4.1.4: use Automatic or Tkinter.
  • macOS + Spyder 4.1.4: use Automatic or OSX.

• To update changes, restart python kernel.

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

This repository contains Python module files which can be used to simulate ideal gas collisions inside a rigid container in 2D and generate an animation of collision events to provide visual instuition and numerical results for various relationships. This folder contains .py files with the following modules:

Modules:

• Ball.py: Contains the Ball class which initialises the ball and container objects. Ball class includes methods that can access and update the position an velocities of the ball objects, as well as a method that calculates the time until two objects collide, a method which moves objects by a specified time, and a method that can update the ball obejcts' velocities after collision. Full list of methods can be found in the docstrings.

• Simulation.py: Contains the Simulation class which initialises the simulation object by initialising a container object and multiple ball objects with randomly generated initial positions and velocities. Simulation class includes methods that can generate patch objects to animate the collision of balls inside the container, a method which finds and executes the next collision in the simualtion, a method which iterates collision for a given number of frames and outputs animation as well as figures. Full list of methods can be found in the docstrings.

• Figure.py: Contains functions which initialise the Simulation class and plot simulation data with least-squares fits to characterise the relationships of ideal gases. It can be used to generate a plot of Pressure vs. Temperature for a range of particle radii, a histogram of particle speeds with a Maxwell-Boltzmann fit, and a fit based on the van der Waals' equation over a Pressure vs. Temperature graph. Full list of methods can be found in the docstrings.

• Investigations Script.py: Contains Scripts for running the animation and plotting figures for the investigation section of the project.

• Tests.py: Contains Scrips for unit testing and integration testing of various methods and classes, making sure that they work both individually and together in a sequence.

Documentation:

Run the help() command to read the docstrings for each class/method/function (which will provide you with more detailed breakdowns of their functionalities).

Installation and Usage:

To conduct the investigation from scratch, import relevant modules (Ball.py, Simulation.py, and Figure.py) into a .py file, initialise the Simulation class, and call the relevant methods/functions.