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Yield stress fluid behavior of foam in porous media

Alexis Mauray1, Max Chabert2, and Hugues Bodiguel1,*

  • 1Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble-INP, LRP UMR 5520, F-38000 Grenoble, France
  • 2Solvay, 1 Biopolis Drive, 138622 Singapore

  • *hugues.bodiguel@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 5, 094004 – Published 17 September, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.5.094004

Abstract

Flow of foams is studied in a model porous medium, in a large range of capillary numbers Ca and relative gas flow rates fg. From pressure measurements, we find that the effective viscosity is a decreasing power-law function of Ca, with the exponent ranging from −1 to −0.75. Direct observation reveals that the flow is heterogeneous. The fraction of preferential paths increases with both fg and Ca. In a straight channel of varying cross section, a bubble train behaves as a shear-thinning yield stress fluid. This feature accounts quantitatively for the effective viscosity in the micromodel.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 5, 094004– Published 17 September, 2020
  • Received 11 June 2019
  • Accepted 17 July 2020
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