The T-coercivity approach for mixed problems

Classically, the well-posedness of variational formulations of mixed linear problems is achieved through the inf-sup condition on the constraint. In this note, we propose an alternative framework to study such problems by using the T-coercivity approach to derive a global inf-sup condition. Generally speaking, this is a constructive approach that, in addition, drives the design of suitable approximations. As a matter of fact, the derivation of the uniform discrete inf-sup condition for the approximate problems follows easily from the study of the original problem. To support our view, we solve a series of classical mixed problems with the T-coercivity approach. Among others, the celebrated Fortin Lemma appears naturally in the numerical analysis of the approximate problems.