# Remove floating balls

**URL:** <https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679>\
**Category:** PFC\
**Tags:** fish\
**Created:** [July 28, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679 "2022-07-28T17:11:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![syaniliffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@syaniliffa](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/syaniliffa)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679/1 "2022-07-28T17:11:20Z")

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Dear all,

Does anyone know a fish code that can be used to remove floating balls in PFC2D?

Thanks,

Syani

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**Author:** ![Mussie](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.itascainternational.com/mussie/32/360_2.png) [@Mussie](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/Mussie)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2022, 9:34pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679/2 "2022-07-28T21:34:41Z")

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Dear Syani,

within the PFC documentation you can find the example called “Probing a Granular Specimen”.

Within the explenation of this example you can find the fish function called [identify\_floaters] - you can delete the ball group called ‘floaters’ after calling the fish function.

Cheers

Mussie

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**Author:** ![syaniliffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@syaniliffa](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/syaniliffa)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 4:20am UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679/3 "2022-07-29T04:20:15Z")

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Dear Mussie,

Thanks to you I managed to find the function.

Let me ask you one more question, please. Do you know why a model never reaches convergence? I’ve tried running the model for hours but the model won’t converge.

Regards,

Syani

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**Author:** ![Mussie](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.itascainternational.com/mussie/32/360_2.png) [@Mussie](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/Mussie)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2022, 8:26pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679/4 "2022-07-30T20:26:55Z")

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Dear Syanai,

can you specify details of your models please.

What is the set up of your model? Did you use damping? Which solve commands did you use? Theres is a number of reasons why your model might not reach convergence.

Regards,

Mussie

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**Author:** ![syaniliffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@syaniliffa](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/syaniliffa)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679/6 "2022-08-05T01:55:39Z")

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Dear Behzad,

You can use this code to delete the balls that don’t have any contacts.

fish define identify\_floaters  
loop foreach local ball ball.list  
ball.group.remove(ball,‘floaters’)  
local contactmap = ball.contactmap(ball)  
local size = map.size(contactmap)  
if size \<= 1 then  
ball.group(ball) = ‘floaters’  
endif  
endloop  
end  
[identify\_floaters]  
ball delete range group ‘floaters’

When you run that code, there will be information about how much they delete the balls.

Regards,

Syani

Pada tanggal Kam, 4 Agu 2022 pukul 02.08 Behzad via Itasca Software Forum \<[notifications@itasca.discoursemail.com](mailto:notifications@itasca.discoursemail.com)\> menulis:

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**Author:** ![mehrgini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mehrgini](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/mehrgini)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679/7 "2022-08-22T17:51:07Z")

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Thank you so much Syani. It helped me truly!

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**Author:** ![MeihuaK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@MeihuaK](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/MeihuaK)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 2:28pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/remove-floating-balls/679/8 "2023-11-07T14:28:10Z")

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Dear syaniliffa,  
Thank you for your generous advice!