Experiments and simulations of liquid imbibition in aqueous foams under microgravity

We describe the capillary motion of liquid into aqueous foams under microgravity. Experiments in which a constant input of liquid is added to a foam under a variety of controlled experimental conditions (bubble size, cell geometry, bubble interfacial properties) have been performed in parabolic flights and in the MAXUS 6 sounding rocket. For comparison, we also performed numerical simulations, based on the foam drainage equations in which the gravitational contributions are removed. The agreement between these simulations and the experimental data is good, and the quantitative adjustment between them enables us to estimate foam permeabilities and surface shear viscosities.