Analysis of a stabilization-free quadrilateral Virtual Element for 2D linear elasticity in the Hu-Washizu formulation

The Virtual Element Method (VEM) for the elasticity problem is considered in the framework of the Hu-Washizu variational formulation. In particular, a couple of low-order schemes presented in [1], are studied for quadrilateral meshes. The methods under consideration avoid the need of the stabilization term typical of the VEM, due to the introduction of a suitable projection on higher-order polynomials. The schemes are proved to be stable and optimally convergent in a compressible regime, including the case where highly distorted (even non-convex) meshes are employed.