Speaker:Michael Gratton, Metron, Inc.
Title: Modeling Foams

Abstract: Foams are important two-phase materials with wide application. Study of foams has focused on quasi-static foams, where surfactants delay bubble rupture for hours. Newer foamed materials, such as metals, lack surfactants. The dynamics of clean foams cannot then be adequately described by existing models. In this talk, we explore a boundary integral approach to investigate the dynamics of clean, two-dimensional foams. This approach solves for the interface dynamics directly, but rapid variation of the integrand occurs when liquid-gas interfaces are in close proximity. We develop a simple and robust numerical approach to evaluate these integrals on fixed coarse grids. For foams with small liquid fractions, we observe many known features of foam dynamics: node motion, lamellar bending, lamellar drainage, and topological transitions. We also learn the relative timescales on which these processes occur.

Time: Friday, April 20, 2012, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Place: Science and Tech I, Room 242

Department of Mathematical Sciences
George Mason University
4400 University Drive, MS 3F2
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
http://math.gmu.edu/
Tel. 703-993-1460, Fax. 703-993-1491