Isothermal and natural convection flows in fractal cavities Original Research Article

In the present work the dynamics of a fluid flow in a fractal domain is analyzed. This domain is a cavity in which the edges are pre-fractals of the Koch square curve. Simulations were carried out considering the pre-fractals of levels 0 (square cavity), 1 and 2. The isothermal regime and the natural convection simulation were performed on a structured staggered grid using a finite volume method. For the level-0 fractal, the numerical code reproduces the results found in the literature. For non-isothermal flow some oscillations were detected at the kinetic energy for Re>4000, but they are not verified for the standard cavity under the same conditions. Some oscillations were also already observed, but for a deep cavity (aspect ratio equal 2) and for Re>5000.