Classical interatomic potential for orthorhombic uranium

A classical interatomic potential for uranium metal is derived within the framework of the charge optimized many body (COMB) formalism. The potential is fitted with a database obtained from experiment and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The potential correctly predicts orthorhombic α-U to be the ground state. Good agreement with experimental values is obtained for the lattice parameters, nearest neighbor distances, and elastic constants. Molecular dynamics simulations also correctly show the anisotropy in the coefficient of thermal expansion and the temperature dependence of the nearest neighbor distances.