Conductances between confined rough walls

Two- and three-dimensional creeping flows and diffusion transport through constricted and possibly rough surfaces are studied. Asymptotic expansions of conductances are derived as functions of the constriction local geometry. The validity range of the proposed theoretical approximations is explored through a comparison either with available exact results for specific two-dimensional aperture fields or with direct numerical computations for general three-dimensional geometries. The large validity range of the analytical expressions proposed for the hydraulic conductivity (and to a lesser extent for the electrical conductivity) opens up interesting perspectives for the simulation of flows in highly complicated geometries with a large number of constrictions. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.