Atomistic and Continuum Descriptions Contrasted

2 Conceptual Backdrop for Characterizing the Total Energy 4.2.1 Atomistic and Continuum Descriptions Contrasted 

One then makes a bolder assertion. It is hypothesized that even in the presence of some inhomogeneous deformation, the total energy may be obtained as an integral over the strain energy density which is itself obtained by appealing only to the local state of deformation. This leads to the form described in chap. 2  

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