In the Voigt elastic approximation, every local strain is . The corresponding local stress is . Differentiating the averaged strain energy density under the integral gives
The uniform strain need not generate an equilibrated local stress; this calculation concerns the stated approximation, not an assertion that it solves the heterogeneous boundary problem.
For the Reuss elastic approximation, use the convex conjugate
Under differentiable strictly convex duality, the local strain produced by uniform stress is . Set . Averaging the local strains gives . At the maximizing stress in , the stationarity condition is precisely . Consequently
Thus the derivative of each approximate energy is its own mean stress, including
For positive linear elasticity, and , giving the useful check and . More general convex duality gives the same conjugacy relation with subgradients when differentiability or strict convexity is absent.
The Reuss elastic approximation assumes uniform stress. The local strain is the derivative of the convex conjugate ; its mean is . Under invertible differentiable duality, this mean determines . For positive linear elasticity, . Uniform stress is generally not accompanied by a compatible local displacement field, so this approximation is distinguished from an exact heterogeneous solution.