We present an a posteriori error estimator for piecewise linear finite element approximations of structure vibration problems. We prove that this estimator is equivalent to the energy norm of the error. Also, we introduce an adaptive mesh-refinement procedure based on the proposed estimator to analize fluid-structure interaction problems. Finally, numerical results for some test examples are presented which show the efficiency of the error estimator and the mesh-refinement techniques.Departamento de Matemática