Attraction-induced jamming in the flow of foam through a channel

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to explore how attractive forces between bubbles in foam influence flow behavior, revealing jamming, stick-slip, and transition to smooth flow depending on force thresholds and attraction strength.

Contribution

It introduces a model incorporating disjoining pressure effects to demonstrate how attractive potentials induce jamming and flow regimes in foam through a channel.

Findings

Jamming occurs below a force threshold that increases linearly with attraction strength.

Stick-slip flow involves low-frequency, localized rearrangements.

Steady flow exhibits broad energy fluctuation spectra and collective behavior.

Abstract

We study the flow of a pressure-driven foam through a straight channel using numerical simulations, and examine the effects of a tuneable attractive potential between bubbles. This potential, which accounts for the effects of disjoining pressure in the liquid films between separating bubbles, is shown here to introduce jamming and stick-slip flow in a straight channel. We report on the behaviour of these new regimes by varying the strength of the attractive potential. It is seen that there is a force threshold below which the flow jams, and on increasing the driving force, a cross over from intermittent (stick-slip) to smooth flow is observed. This threshold force below which the foam jams increases linearly with the strength of the attractive potential. By examining the spectra of energy fluctuations, we show that stick-slip flow is characterized by low frequency rearrangements and strongly local behaviour, whereas steady flow shows a broad spectrum of energy drop events and collective behaviour. Our work suggests that the stick-slip and the jamming regimes occur due to the increased stabilization of contact networks by the attractive potential - as the strength of attraction is increased, bubbles are increasingly trapped within networks, and there is a decrease in the number of contact changes.