Unconditionally stable mixed finite element methods for Darcy flow

Unconditionally stable finite element methods for Darcy flow are derived by adding least squares residual forms of the governing equations to the classical mixed formulations. The proposed methods are free of mesh dependent stabilization parameters and allow the use of the classical continuous Lagrangian finite element spaces of any order for the velocity and the potential. Stability, convergence and error estimates are derived and numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the flexibility of the proposed finite element formulations and to confirm the predicted rates of convergence. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.