Adaptive remeshing for convective heat transfer with variable fluid properties

This article presents an adaptive finite element method based on remeshing to solve incompressible viscous flow problems for which fluid properties present a strong temperature dependence. Solutions are obtained in primitive variables using a highly accurate finite element approximation on unstructured grids. Two general purpose error estimators are presented, which take into account the temperature dependence of fluid properties. The methodology is applied to a problem of practical interest: the thermal convection of corn syrup in an enclosure with localized heating. Predictions are in good agreement with experimental measurements. The method leads to improved accuracy and reliability of finite element predictions. Nomenclature cp = specific heat