SUMMARYAn adaptive strategy incorporating mesh remeshing and reÿning is developed to study the supersonic turbulent ow over a backward-facing step on a mixed quadrilateral-triangular mesh. In the Cartesian co-ordinate system, the unsteady Favre-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with a low-Reynolds-number k-turbulence model are solved using a locally implicit scheme with an anisotropic dissipation model. In the present adaptive strategy, two error indicators for both mesh remeshing and reÿning, respectively, are presented. The remeshing error indicator incorporates uniÿed magnitude of substantial derivative of pressure and that of vorticity magnitude, whereas the reÿning error indicator incorporates uniÿed magnitude of substantial derivative of pressure and that of weighted vorticity magnitude. To assess the present approach, the transonic turbulent ow around an NACA 0012 airfoil is performed. Based on the comparison with the experimental data, the accuracy of the present approach is conÿrmed. According to the high-resolutional result on the adaptive mesh, the structure of backstep corner vortex, expansion wave and oblique shock wave is distinctly captured.