Fluid flow across a wavy channel brought in contact

TL;DR

This study investigates fluid flow across elastic solids with wavy surfaces in contact, developing analytical and numerical solutions to understand pressure effects and interface transmissivity near percolation.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled analytical and finite-element framework for fluid-solid interaction in wavy contact interfaces with strong coupling considerations.

Findings

Analytical and numerical solutions agree within validity range.

Interface transmissivity follows a power-law decay near percolation.

Sealing pressure is linearly related to inlet pressure, independent of outlet pressure.

Abstract

A pressure driven flow in contact interface between elastic solids with wavy surfaces is studied. We consider a strong coupling between the solid and the fluid problems, which is relevant when the fluid pressure is comparable with the contact pressure. An approximate analytical solution is obtained for this coupled problem. A finite-element monolithically coupled framework is used to solve the problem numerically. A good agreement is obtained between the two solutions within the region of the validity of the analytical one. A power-law interface transmissivity decay is observed near the percolation. Finally, we showed that the external pressure needed to seal the channel is an affine function of the inlet pressure and does not depend on the outlet pressure.