The Mixed Virtual Element Discretization for highly-anisotropic problems: the role of the boundary degrees of freedom

Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the accuracy and the robustness of the mixed Virtual Element Methods when dealing with highly-anisotropic diffusion problems. In particular, we analyze the performances of different approaches which are characterized by different sets of both boundary and internal degrees of freedom in presence of a strong anisotropy of the diffusion tensor with constant or variable coefficients. A new definition of the boundary degrees of freedom is also proposed and tested.