ADAPTIVE FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD FOR THERMAL FLOW PROBLEMS

This paper presents an adaptive finite element method based on remeshi ng to solve incompressible viscous flow problems including heat transf er effects by forced or free convection. Conjugate heat transfer probl ems are also considered. Solutions are obtained in primitive variables by an Uzawa algorithm using a highly accurate finite element approxim ation on unstructured grids. Two error estimators are presented and co mpared on problems with known analytical solutions. The methodology is then applied to a problem of practical interest and predictions are c ompared with experimental measurements and show very good agreement.