A New Locking-Free Virtual Element Method for Linear Elasticity Problems

Abstract

This paper devises a new lowest-order conforming virtual element method (VEM) for planar linear elasticity with the pure displacement/traction boundary condition. The main trick is to view a generic polygon $K$ as a new one $\widetilde{K}$ with additional vertices consisting of interior points on edges of $K$, so that the discrete admissible space is taken as the $V_1$ type virtual element space related to the partition $\{\widetilde{K}\}$ instead of $\{K\}$. The method is proved to converge with optimal convergence order both in $H^1$ and $L^2$ norms and uniformly with respect to the Lamé constant $\lambda$. Numerical tests are presented to illustrate the good performance of the proposed VEM and confirm the theoretical results.