In the last few years, a team effort has allowed the development of a very general adaptive finite element solution procedure which can be applied to a large variety of problems. In this paper, this complete strategy is presented and applied to the solution of three-dimensional shear-thinning fluid flow problems. Carreau-Yasuda and power-law models are used to model shear-thinning viscosity effects. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.