Internship and thesis proposals
Controlling foam topology with viscoelasticity

Domaines
Soft matter

Type of internship
Expérimental
Description
Foam ageing involves coarsening, the transfer of gas from smaller to larger bubbles, usually governed by diffusion through the films separating them. Bubble rearrangements introduce a second timescale, controlled by the continuous phase’s mechanical response. In low-viscosity liquids, rapid rearrangements allow the foam to remain near mechanical equilibrium. In yield-stress fluids, slower rearrangements can instead produce unusual structures. This internship will investigate whether weakly associative polymer solutions can tune foam ageing from diffusion-controlled to relaxation-controlled dynamics. Their relaxation times can be adjusted through polymer concentration, chain length and associative-group length. Experiments will establish foam-generation protocols and monitor ageing by imaging. Image analysis will quantify structural evolution. The project aims to establish how liquid relaxation controls foam ageing and offers routes to tailoring foam structure and properties.

Contact
Anniina Salonen
Laboratory : SIMM - ESPCI - UMR7615
Team : Sciences et Ingénierie de la Matière Molle
Team Website
/ Thesis :    Funding :