Jamming in sheared foams and emulsions, explained by critical instability of the films between neighboring bubbles and drops

Abstract

Phenomenon of foam and emulsion jamming at low shear rates is explained by considering the dynamics of thinning in the transient film, formed between the neighboring bubbles and drops. After gradually thinning down to a critical thickness, these films undergo instability transition and thin stepwise, forming the so-called "black films", which are only several nanometers thick and, thereby, lead to stronger adhesion between the dispersed particles. Theoretical analysis shows that such film thickness instability occurs only if the contact time between the bubbles/drops in sheared foam/emulsion is sufficiently long, which corresponds to sufficiently low (critical) rate of shear. Explicit expression for this critical rate is proposed and compared to experimental data.

8 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (5)

• Yielding and flow in adhesive and non-adhesive concentrated emulsions
• Rate Dependence and Role of Disorder in Linearly Sheared Two-Dimensional Foams
• Theoretical model of viscous friction inside steadily sheared foams and concentrated emulsions
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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Dynamical coupling between connected foam films by interface transfer across the menisci
• Jamming transition in a two-dimensional open granular pile with rolling resistance
• Attraction-induced jamming in the flow of foam through a channel