Equations of motion for continuum systems

We construct equations of motion for anN-component continuum. The basic assumption is that the dynamical vector field is the sum of two terms: a conservative term, being a Hamiltonian vector field associated with the energy function of the system; and a dissipative term, being a gradient vector field associated with a family of functions. The resulting equations satisfy the usual conservation laws for continuum systems, and, moreover, reduce to the standard fluid equations when the continuum is a fluid.