Eur. Phys. J. E (2014) 37: 16
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2014-14016-3

Topical Review

Microgravity studies of aqueous wet foams

¹ Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris Sud 11, Bâtiment 510, 91405, Orsay, France
² Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux Divisés et des Interfaces, Université Paris-Est Marne la Vallée, 77454, Marne-la-Vallée Cedex 2, France

^* e-mail: langevin@lps.u-psud.fr

Received: 2 December 2013
Revised: 13 February 2014
Accepted: 17 February 2014
Published online: 21 March 2014

Abstract

Foams and foaming pose important questions and problems for both fundamental research and practical applications. Despite the fact that foams have been extensively studied, many aspects of foam physics and chemistry still remain unclear. Experiments on foams performed under microgravity can be extended far beyond their counterpart where gravity is fully present (i.e. most experiments on Earth). They allow, in particular, observation of the wet foams obtained during the foaming process; on Earth, foams at this stage evolve too quickly due to gravity drainage and cannot be studied. This paper reviews the existing studies of foams under microgravity, which include studies in parabolic flights, in sounding rockets and in the International Space Station.