For a linear dielectric, the volumetric force density as obtained through the method of Korteweig-Helmholtz and is given by:
The Korteweig-Helmholtz force density is obtained from a thermodynamic
analysis of the dielectric
. This force density can be expressed as the divergence of
a tensor, called the Maxwell Stress Tensor (MST). The derivation is as
follows, defining 
, we have:
For an electrically linear material the displacement field is given by Gauss' law
Therefore we have
Now using the definition of electrically linear material, 
, we obtain:
Where 
is the unit tensor. The MST for the linear
dielectric is then:
The benefit of the MST lies in calculating forces on bodies. The total force on a body is given by:
Figure 1: A body v and it bounding surface 
. The numbering
convention used here is that 
points from fluid 2 towards fluid
1.
The volume integral is replaced by a simpler (most of the time) surface integral. Note however that the MST does not represent an actual stress in the material. The MST will give the correct torque on a body when it is symmetric.