As a counterpoint to solving for the scalar potential, as is done in the The V Formulation, electrostatic problems can be reformulated to solve for the flux. The D-V Formulation is a mixed formulation technique that solves for the normal components of the electric displacement field, D. It does this by solving a system of two equations. One for the electric displacement field and a second equation for the electric potential, V. The second equation acts as a constraint on the first equation.

Computing the flux directly produces a high accuracy for the electric displacement field and is particularly advantageous for calculating electromechanical forces and geometries that contain infinitely sharp corners. This does come at the cost of an increased computation load. See Theory for the Electrostatics Interface with the D-V Formulation for more details. The D-V Formulation aims to improve the accuracy and convergence of the electric field, while the electric potential, serving as a Lagrange multiplier, has a lower order of accuracy. Thus, it is recommended to focus on using or visualizing the electric field rather than the potential.