Anne-Laure Biance (Institut Lumière Matière, Lyon). How electric fields can control the stability of a liquid foam?

A liquid foam is an out of equilibrium material that will inevitably collapse due to coarsening, coalescence and drainage. We will propose here a way to return gravity driven drainage, to increase its stability.

In particular, we will investigate here how applying an electric field along of gas/liquid interface, covered with surfactants, can generate a liquid flow. 

We will consider the cases of a single interface, of a soap bubble and of a liquid foam. We will in particular discuss how the complex hydrodynamic boundary condition, how film thickening in bubbles and how Joule effects can enhance or not these flows.