Microgravity Foam Structure and Rheology

Abstract

The objective of this research was to exploit rheological and multiple-light scattering techniques, and ultimately microgravity conditions, in order to quantify and elucidate the unusual elastic character of foams in terms of their underlying microscopic structure and dynamics. Special interest was in determining how this elastic character vanishes, i.e. how the foam melts into a simple viscous liquid, as a function of both increasing liquid content and shear strain rate.