Nonlinear stress and fluctuation dynamics of sheared disordered wet foam

Abstract

A sheared wet foam, which stores elastic energy in bubble deformations, relaxes stress through bubble rearrangements. The intermittency of bubble rearrangements in the foam leads to effectively stochastic drops in stress that are followed by periods of elastic increase. We investigate global characteristics of highly disordered foams over three decades of strain rate and almost two decades of system size. We characterize the behavior using a range of measures: average stress, distribution of stress drops, rate of stress drops, and a normalized fluctuation intensity. There is essentially no dependence on system size. As a function of strain rate, there is a change in behavior around shear rates of 0.07 s(-1).