Formulation and optimization of the energy-based blended quasicontinuum method

► Accurately couple a point-based atomistic region to a volume-based continuum region. ► Theoretical optimization of the blending function and mesh refinement. ► Optimal blending functions for arbitrary interfaces solved by a quadratic variational problem. ► Numerical experiments for a microcrack and di-vacancy that validates the theoretical predictions. ► Can be implemented for multi D problems modeled by many-body potentials and multilattices.