An Adaptive Hp-finite Element Method for Incompressible Free-surface Flows of Generalized Newtonian Fluids

An adaptive hp-finite element method for free surface flows of incompressible viscous fluids is presented. Generalized Newtonian models and surface tension effects are included. Principal components of our method are a reliable discretization of the free surface, a moving grid algorithm, an a posteriori error estimator and an efficient adaptive strategy. A full Newton-Raphson iterative scheme and an adequate data structure are employed in the analysis. Numerical experiments that illustrate applications of the method to model free surface flows are included