Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations are performed for argon at different strain rates using accurate two-body and three-body intermolecular potentials. The contributions of two- and three-body interactions to the configurational energy of argon at different strain rates are reported. The NEMD data indicate that there is the same simple relationship between two- and three-body interactions as reported previously [Marcelli and Sadus, J. Chem. Phys. 112, 6382 (2000)] from equilibrium Monte Carlo simulations. The relationship is largely independent of strain rate. NEMD calculations using this relationship for shear viscosity at different strain rates indicate good agreement with full two-body+three-body calculations. This means that the effect of three-body interactions on transport properties might be achieved in a conventional two-body NEMD simulation without incurring the computational penalty of three-body calculations.