Eur. Phys. J. B 40, 119-121 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2004-00246-2

Comment on “Foam imbibition in microgravity. An experimental study” by H. Caps, H. Decauwer, M.-L. Chevalier, G. Soyez, M. Ausloos and N. Vandewalle

¹ Physics Department, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
² Shell Research and Technology Centre, PO Box 38000, 1030 BN Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Corresponding author: ^a simon.cox@tcd.ie

Received: 22 July 2003
Revised: 28 April 2004
Published online: 3 August 2004

Abstract

In a recent paper, [1] described parabolic flight experiments showing the movement of liquid into the foam during the microgravity phase. In this comment, we present a detailed theory of this process, supported by numerical calculations, confirming their conclusion that the wetting front moves with the square root of time. We further show that this diffusion process is similar for different surfactant systems, which allows us to provide bounds on the value of the diffusion coefficient.