Space–time adaptive simulations for unsteady Navier–Stokes problems

In this paper we apply to the unsteady Navier–Stokes problems some results concerning a posteriori error estimates and adaptive algorithms known for steady Navier–Stokes, unsteady heat and reaction-convection-diffusion equations and unsteady Stokes problems. Our target is to investigate the real viability of a fully combined space and time adaptivity for engineering problems. The comparison between our numerical simulations and the literature results demonstrates the accuracy and efficiency of this adaptive strategy.