Daniele Boffi

Franco Brezzi

Leszek F. Demkowicz

Ricardo G. Durán

Richard S. Falk

Michel Fortin

Since the early 70's, mixed finite elements have been the object of a wide and deep study by the mathematical and engineering communities. The fundamental role of this method for many application fields has been worldwide recognized and its use has been introduced in several commercial codes. An important feature of mixed finite elements is the interplay between theory and application. Discretization spaces for mixed schemes require suitable compatibilities, so that simple minded approximations generally do not work and the design of appropriate stabilizations gives rise to challenging mathematical problems. This volume collects the lecture notes of a C.I.M.E. course held in Summer 2006, when some of the most world recognized experts in the field reviewed the rigorous setting of mixed finite elements and revisited it after more than 30 years of practice. Applications, in this volume, range from traditional ones, like fluid-dynamics or elasticity, to more recent and active fields, like electromagnetism.

Lectures given at the C.I.M.E. Summer School held in Cetraro, Italy, June 26 - July 1, 2006

Mixed Finite Elements, Compatibility Conditions, and Applications

Gabriel Acosta

This Brief is mainly devoted to two classical and related results: the existence of a right inverse of the divergence operator and the so-called Korn Inequalities. It is well known that both results are fundamental tools in the analysis of some classic differential equations, particularly in those arising in fluid dynamics and elasticity. Several connections between these two topics and improved Poincaré inequalities are extensively treated. From simple key ideas the book is growing smoothly in complexity. Beginning with the study of these problems on star-shaped domains the arguments are extended first to John domains and then to Hölder α domains where the need of weighted spaces arises naturally. In this fashion, the authors succeed in presenting in an unified and concise way several classic and recent developments in the field. These features certainly makes this Brief useful for students, post-graduate students, and researchers as well.

Divergence Operator and Related Inequalities

Ricardo G. Durán

About

Books

Join the club