Application of the satisfying Babuška--Brezzi method to a two- dimensional diffusion problem (Q1801965)

The paper presents numerical studies of mixed and stabilized mixed finite element (f.e.) approximations to the model of two-dimensional second- order elliptic boundary value problems \(\text{div}(c\nabla u)= f\) in \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^ 2\) under Dirichlet, or mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions on the basis of various equal-order (for \(u\) and the flux \(\sigma\); for the flux possibly discontinuous) triangular and rectangular elements. The numericaical experiments show that the stabilized mixed f.e. method improves f.e. approximations, especially to the flux substancially. The crucial point is the determination of the regularization parameter in front of the stabilizing (diffusion-like) term. Superconvergence phenomena observed in the one-dimensional case by \textit{L. P. Franca} [Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 29, No. 8, 1715-1726 (1990; Zbl 0723.65054)] were not recovered in the two-dimensional case.