Incompressibility without tears—HOW to avoid restrictions of mixed formulation

The severe restrictions of the Babuška‐Brezzi stability criteria permit only a limited number of interpolations for velocities (displacements) and pressure to be used for incompressible behaviour. These restrictions preclude the use of many useful elements. We show in this paper how such difficulties can be side‐stepped by seeking the steady state solution through the use of various time marching schemes. This permits a simple iterative approach to incompressible (or nearly incompressible) problems of fluid mechanics or solid mechanics and provides a stimulus for the use of such procedures in metal forming flow, etc.