Quasi-two-dimensional foam flow through and around a permeable obstacle

Abstract

In a study of the evolving structure of two-dimensional liquid foams flowing through an inhomogeneous confining cell, the motion and deformation of their elementary components, the bubbles, are quantified for various confinement ratios. The flow experiments highlight the elastoplastic properties of foams, controlled by their liquid fraction, which are notably responsible for the symmetry breaking of the flow, with multipolar deformation and velocity fields around the localized inhomogeneity.