Size distribution dependence of collective relaxation dynamics in a two-dimensional wet foam

Abstract

Foams can be ubiquitously observed in nature and in industrial products. Despite the relevance of their properties to deformation, fluidity, and collapse, all of which are essential for applications, there are few experimental studies of collective relaxation dynamics in a wet foam. Here, we directly observe how the relaxation dynamics changes with increasing liquid fraction in both monodisperse and polydisperse two-dimensional foams. As we increase the liquid fraction, we quantitatively characterize the slowing-down of the relaxation, and the increase of the correlation length. We also find two different relaxation modes which depend on the size distribution of the bubbles. It suggests that the bubbles which are simply near to each other play an important role in large rearrangements, not just those in direct contact. Finally, we confirm the generality of our experimental findings by a numerical simulation for the relaxation process of wet foams.