Foam Drainage Equation (FDE)

Consider a liquid flowing through a static foam under gravity, the main factors affecting flow
are viscosity and pressure differences. This is the drainage phase of a foam flow. Note that
what separates foam from porous media is its ability to expand to accomodate more liquid.
Assuming the geometry of the foam stays intact, we need low flow rates and small capillary
number (Ca = U/ where U is a typical length scale).
The foaming process itself is the result of surfactants stabilising the erupting bubbles and
there are two sites where the surfactants can influence dissipation: either in the Plateau borders
or in the junctions.

Plateau Border FDE

In order to apply the lubrication approximation, we assume the foam is dry with approximately
constant cross-sectional area, negligible contribution from Plateau borders and that the flow is
parabolic (Poiseuille) in the borders with no inertia (so we can apply Stokes approximation).
Let A(x, t) be the cross-section of the Plateau borders at position x and time t, then mass
conservation gives
At + Q = 0
and further assume the flow is parallel, i.e. x = (0, 0, z) then gives At + Qz = 0 where Q is
the flux of the fluid through a single Plateau border. After some lines of maths (see attached
for derivation), we have
+ 2 12 1/2 = 0.

Junction FDE
For a surfactant with low surface shear viscosity, we consider the flow at the junction of Plateau
borders. Integrating the Stokes equations (Koehler et al. 1999) over the foam gives

2
(p g)dV = udV + 2 udV.
Vl VJunc. VPB

Notice the (small) Plateau border contribution unlike the Plateau border FDE case. Evaluating
the integral gives
I
g + CA1/2 = uA1/2
2cL
where I is a dimensionless constant, L is the typical lengthscale of a single Plateau border.
Using mass conservation and (different) non-dimensionalising gives

+ 3/2 12 = 0.

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Applications and Solutions of the FDE

2
Derivation of the FDE
Stokes equation with the no-slip boundary condition then gives the Poisson equation

2 u = G/ in subject to u = 0 on

where is the interior of the Plateau border, is its boundary and is the surface viscosity.
This is then solved numerically noting that

1 AG
hui = udA =
A f
where f is a dimensionless constant depending on the shape (for an ideal Plateau border cross-
section, f 49). Then it follows that Q = huiA where by geometry we can obtain A = C 2 r2
with C 2 = 3 12 0.161.
Force balancing on the volume element Adz of the Plateau border gives
f hui p
g cos = +
| {z } | {zA } z
weight
|{z}
viscous pressure

where p p0 = /r by Laplace-Young (p0 is pressure in the surrounding gas and p is the

liquid pressure) and so the flux equation is
g cos 2 C 1/2 A
Q = huiA = A A .
f 2f z
Suppose all Plateau borders are not vertical but randomly oriented, then we replace z with

z = z/ cos and g with g cos , then the mass conservation equation is
cos2
gA2 21 CA1/2 Az z = 0.


At +
f

Taking a network average hcos2 i = 0 cos2 sin d 0 sin d = 31 , i.e. increases the
viscosity by a factor of 3 and so rearranging gives the 1-D Plateau border FDE

3f At + gA2 12 CA1/2 Az z = 0

p at z = 0, L. Non-dimensionalising
with boundary conditions
2
with = t/t0 , = z/z0 and
= A/z0 and x0 = g/C and t0 = 3f / gC gives

+ 2 12 1/2 = 0.

This is valid for liquid fractions l = 5% but seem to work for higher l .
Improvements include generalising to higher dimensions (this is easy since gravity only
acts in the direction), i.e.

+ (2 ) ( 21 1/2 ) = 0

3
or include coarsening behaviour by introducing the number of Plateau borders N (, ) as a
function to give
(N ) + (N 2 ) ( 12 N 1/2 ) = 0
and we proceed numerically.

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