Discretization of mixed formulations of elliptic problems on polyhedral meshes
For researchers in numerical methods for PDEs, this work provides a unifying theoretical framework for mixed-hybrid schemes on polyhedral meshes, but it is primarily a review with incremental theoretical contributions.
This paper reviews design principles for mimetic finite difference, finite volume, and finite element schemes for mixed elliptic problems, proving that consistency and stability conditions lead to mimetic schemes. It demonstrates flexibility by deriving higher-order schemes and convergent schemes for nonlinear problems with small diffusion.
We review basic design principles underpinning the construction of mimetic finite difference and a few finite volume and finite element schemes for mixed formulations of elliptic problems. For a class of low-order mixed-hybrid schemes, we show connections between these principles and prove that the consistency and stability conditions must lead to a member of the mimetic family of schemes regardless of the selected discretization framework. Finally, we give two examples of using flexibility of the mimetic framework: derivation of higher-order schemes and convergent schemes for nonlinear problems with small diffusion coefficients.