https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/e2006-00025-4
Regular Articles
Viscosity effects in foam drainage: Newtonian and non-newtonian foaming fluids
1
Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris-Sud, 91405, Orsay, France
2
Laboratoire de Physique, ENS Lyon, 69364, Lyon, France
Received:
25
October
2005
Published online:
28
February
2006
Abstract.: We have studied the drainage of foams made from Newtonian and non-Newtonian solutions of different viscosities. Forced-drainage experiments first show that the behavior of Newtonian solutions and of shear-thinning ones (foaming solutions containing either Carbopol or Xanthan) are identical, provided one considers the actual viscosity corresponding to the shear rate found inside the foam. Second, for these fluids, a drainage regime transition occurs as the bulk viscosity is increased, illustrating a coupling between surface and bulk flow in the channels between bubbles. The properties of this transition appear different from the ones observed in previous works in which the interfacial viscoelasticity was varied. Finally, we show that foams made of solutions containing long flexible PolyEthylene Oxide (PEO) molecules counter-intuitively drain faster than foams made with Newtonian solutions of the same viscosity. Complementary experiments made with fluids having all the same viscosity but different responses to elongational stresses (PEO-based Boger fluids) suggest an important role of the elastic properties of the PEO solutions on the faster drainage.
PACS: 82.70.Rr Aerosols and foams – / 47.60.+i Flows in ducts, channels, nozzles, and conduits – / 47.56.+r Flows through porous media –
© EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2006
