Gijs Katgert

Rate Dependence and Role of Disorder in Linearly Sheared Two-Dimensional Foams

The shear flow of two-dimensional foams is probed as a function of shear rate and disorder. Disordered, bidisperse foams exhibit strongly shear rate dependent velocity profiles. This behavior is captured quantitatively in a simple model based on the balance of the time-averaged drag forces in the system, which are found to exhibit power-law scaling with the foam velocity and strain rate. Disorder makes the scaling of the bulk drag forces different from that of the local interbubble drag forces, which we evidence by rheometrical measurements. In monodisperse, ordered foams, rate independent velocity profiles are found, which lends further credibility to this picture.

Couette flow of two-dimensional foams

We experimentally investigate flow of quasi–two-dimensional disordered foams in Couette geometries, both for foams squeezed below a top plate and for freely floating foams (bubble rafts). With the top plate, the flows are strongly localized and rate dependent. For the bubble rafts the flow profiles become essentially rate independent, the local and global rheology do not match, and in particular the foam flows in regions where the stress is below the global yield stress. We attribute this to nonlocal effects and show that the fluidity model recently introduced by Goyon et al. (Nature, 454 (2008) 84) captures the essential features of flow both with and without a top plate.

Flow in linearly sheared two-dimensional foams: From bubble to bulk scale.

We probe the flow of two-dimensional (2D) foams, consisting of a monolayer of bubbles sandwiched between a liquid bath and glass plate, as a function of driving rate, packing fraction, and degree of disorder. First, we find that bidisperse, disordered foams exhibit strongly rate-dependent and inhomogeneous (shear-banded) velocity profiles, while monodisperse ordered foams are also shear banded but essentially rate independent. Second, we adapt a simple model [E. Janiaud, D. Weaire, and S. Hutzler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 038302 (2006)] based on balancing the averaged drag forces between the bubbles and the top plate F[over ]_{bw} and the averaged bubble-bubble drag forces F[over ]_{bb} by assuming that F[over ]_{bw} approximately v;{2/3} and F[over ]_{bb} approximately ( partial differential_{y}v);{beta} , where v and ( partial differential_{y}v) denote average bubble velocities and gradients. This model captures the observed rate-dependent flows for beta approximately 0.36 , and the rate independent flows for beta approximately 0.67 . Third, we perform independent rheological measurements of F[over ]_{bw} and F[over ]_{bb} , both for ordered and disordered systems, and find these to be fully consistent with the forms assumed in the simple model. Disorder thus leads to a modified effective exponent beta . Fourth, we vary the packing fraction phi of the foam over a substantial range and find that the flow profiles become increasingly shear banded when the foam is made wetter. Surprisingly, the model describes flow profiles and rate dependence over the whole range of packing fractions with the same power-law exponents-only a dimensionless number k that measures the ratio of the prefactors of the viscous drag laws is seen to vary with packing fraction. We find that k approximately (phi-phi_{c});{-1} , where phi_{c} approximately 0.84 corresponds to the 2D jamming density, and suggest that this scaling follows from the geometry of the deformed facets between bubbles in contact. Overall, our work shows that the presence of disorder qualitatively changes the effective bubble-bubble drag forces and suggests a route to rationalize aspects of the ubiquitous Herschel-Bulkley (power-law) rheology observed in a wide range of disordered materials.

Relaxation and flow in linearly sheared two-dimensional foams

We probe the relation between rheology and shear-induced relaxation in experiments on two-dimensional foams at steady shear. The characteristic relaxation time tr, which we extract from the non-affine part of the bubble displacements, scales non-linearly with the local strain rate . In particular, the relative strength of the non-affine part grows when —hence the foam flow is not quasistatic down to the lowest experimentally accessible shear rate. Furthermore, we establish a direct connection between the relaxation time scaling and the macroscopic rheology.

The jamming perspective on wet foams

Amorphous materials as diverse as foams, emulsions, colloidal suspensions and granular media can jam into a rigid, disordered state where they withstand finite shear stresses before yielding. The jamming transition has been studied extensively, in particular in computer simulations of frictionless, soft, purely repulsive spheres. Foams and emulsions are the closest realizations of this model, and in foams, the (un)jamming point corresponds to the wet limit, where the bubbles become spherical and just form contacts. Here we sketch the relevance of the jamming perspective for the geometry, mechanics and rheology of foams.