  In this paper, a hybrid quasi-static atomistic simulation method at finite
temperature is developed, which combines the advantages of MD for thermal
equilibrium and atomic-scale finite element method (AFEM) for efficient
equilibration. Some temperature effects are embedded in static AFEM simulation
by applying the virtual and equivalent thermal disturbance forces extracted
from MD. Alternatively performing MD and AFEM can quickly obtain a series of
thermodynamic equilibrium configurations such that a quasi-static process is
modeled. Moreover, a stirring-accelerated MD/AFEM fast relaxation approach is
proposed, in which the atomic forces and velocities are randomly exchanged to
artificially accelerate the "slow processes" such as mechanical wave
propagation and thermal diffusion. The efficiency of the proposed methods is
demonstrated by numerical examples on single wall carbon nanotubes.
