Simulated annealing-based algorithms for the studies of the thermoelastic scaling behavior

Simulated annealing is a robust and easy-to-implement algorithm for materia l simulation, However, it consumes a huge amount of computational time, esp ecially on the studies of percolation networks. To reduce the running time, we parallelize the simulated annealing algorithm in our studies of the the rmoelastic scaling behavior of percolation networks. The critical propertie s of the thermoelastic moduli of percolation networks near the threshold p( c) are investigated by constructing a square percolation network. The prope rties are tested by simulations of a series of two-dimensional (2-D) percol ation networks near p(c). The simulations are performed using a novel paral lelizing scheme on the simulated annealing algorithm. To further accelerate the computational speed, we also propose a new conjectural method to gener ate better initial configurations, which speeds up the simulation significa ntly. Preliminary simulation results show surprisingly that the percolating phenomenon of thermal expansion does exist under certain conditions. The b ehavior seems to be governed by the elastic properties of a percolation net work.