Linear and non-linear wall friction of wet foams.

We study the wall slip of aqueous foams with a high liquid content. We use a set-up where, driven by buoyancy, a foam creeps along an inclined smooth solid wall which is immersed in the foaming solution. This configuration allows the force driving the bubble motion and the bubble confinement in the vicinity of the wall to be tuned independently.

Jamming and flow of random-close-packed spherical bubbles: an analogy with granular materials.

Wet foams are random-close-packed assemblies of approximately spherical gas bubbles in a liquid. We report rheological experiments with this material, showing that even though the stiffness and frictional interactions of bubbles strongly distinguish them from solid spherical grains, jamming and flow of wet foams and granular materials are governed by closely analogous laws.