  We consider the tensorial diffusion equation, and address the discrete
maximum-minimum principle of mixed finite element formulations. In particular,
we address non-negative solutions (which is a special case of the
maximum-minimum principle) of mixed finite element formulations. The discrete
maximum-minimum principle is the discrete version of the maximum-minimum
principle.
  In this paper we present two non-negative mixed finite element formulations
for tensorial diffusion equations based on constrained optimization techniques
(in particular, quadratic programming). These proposed mixed formulations
produce non-negative numerical solutions on arbitrary meshes for low-order
(i.e., linear, bilinear and trilinear) finite elements. The first formulation
is based on the Raviart-Thomas spaces, and is obtained by adding a non-negative
constraint to the variational statement of the Raviart-Thomas formulation. The
second non-negative formulation based on the variational multiscale
formulation.
  For the former formulation we comment on the affect of adding the
non-negative constraint on the local mass balance property of the
Raviart-Thomas formulation. We also study the performance of the active set
strategy for solving the resulting constrained optimization problems. The
overall performance of the proposed formulation is illustrated on three
canonical test problems.
