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Novel Shear Banding Phenomenon Probes Soap Film Friction

Ariel Balter·Rebecca Perry·James Glazier
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Abstract

We have generated a novel form of shear banding in a 2D foam and measured the relative magnitude of drag forces on soap films at different lubrication layers. We injected air part way along a flowing bubble field in a narrow Hele-Shaw cell. The injected air inflates bubbles as they flow by, and these bubbles form a shear band down the middle of the Hele-Shaw cell. This channel appears to select a height that minimizes the total dissipation. Fitting data to a simple theoretical model, we show that the drag force on a soap film in contact with the wetting layer on a plate of glass is two orders of magnitude larger than the drag on a soap film in contact with another free soap film.

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Ariel Balter, Rebecca Perry, James Glazier. 2007-05-15. Novel Shear Banding Phenomenon Probes Soap Film Friction. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0611403

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