An implementation of the virtual finite element method with unstructured grids for the modeling of laminar flow in eccentric mixers is presented. The effect of the meshing strategy on the quality of the computed flow field is first carefully investigated with a centered impeller. It is shown that both the number of elements in the vicinity of the impeller and the number of kinematics constraints imposed in the virtual finite element formulation control the computational accuracy. The method is then applied to the case of an eccentric mixer provided with a Rushton turbine showing the capabilities of the proposed approach. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.