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The permeability of two-dimensional fractures with self-affine fractal roughness is studied via analytic arguments and numerical simulations. The limit where the roughness amplitude is small compared with average fracture aperture is analyzed by a perturbation method, while in the opposite case of narrow aperture, we use heuristic arguments based on lubrication theory. Numerical simulations, using the lattice Boltzmann method, are used to examine the complete range of aperture sizes, and confirm the analytic arguments.

Recently, analytical solutions of a nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation describing anomalous diffusion with an external linear force were found using a nonextensive thermostatistical Ansatz. We have extended these solutions to the case when an homogeneous absorption process is also present. Some peculiar aspects of the interrelation between the deterministic force, the nonlinear diffusion, and the absorption process are discussed.

We present experimental results of solute transport in porous samples made of packings of activated carbon porous grains. Exchange experiments, where the tagged solution initially saturating the medium is replaced with the same solution without tracer, are accurately described by macroscopic transport equations. On the other hand, in desorption experiments, where the tagged solution is replaced by water, the solute concentration exhibits a power-law decay for long times, which requires a more detailed, mesoscopic description. We reproduce this behavior within a continuous-time random-walk approach, where the waiting time distribution is related to the desorption isotherm. Results are compatible with a power-law trapping time distribution with divergent first moment, characteristic of anomalous (sub)diffusion.

We have obtained the exact expression of the diffusion propagator in the time-dependent anharmonic potential V(x,t)=1 / 2a(t)x(2)+b ln x. The underlying Euclidean metric of the problem allows us to obtain analytical solutions for a whole family of the elastic parameter a(t), exploiting the relation between the path integral representation of the short time propagator and the modified Bessel functions. We have also analyzed the conditions for the appearance of a nonzero flow of particles through the infinite barrier located at the origin (b<0).