Comparing Two Approaches of Analyzing Mixed Finite Volume Methods

Given the anisotropic Poisson equation $-{\nabla}{\cdot}{\mathcal{K}}{\nabla}p=f$, one can convert it into a system of two first order PDEs: the Darcy law for the flux $u=-{\mathcal{K}{\nabla}p$ and conservation of mass ${\nabla}{\cdot}u=f$. A very natural mixed finite volume method for this system is to seek the pressure in the nonconforming P1 space and the Darcy velocity in the lowest order Raviart-Thomas space. The equations for these variables are obtained by integrating the two first order systems over the triangular volumes. In this paper we show that such a method is really a standard finite element method with local recovery of the flux in disguise. As a consequence, we compare two approaches in analyzing finite volume methods (FVM) and shed light on the proper way of analyzing non co-volume type of FVM. Numerical results for Dirichlet and Neumann problems are included.