Modelling the behaviour of the wetting front in non-standard forced foam drainage scenarios

[Display omitted] ► The dynamics of the wetting front in forced foam drainage are studied numerically. ► The model benefits from the use of adaptive, unstructured finite element meshing. ► The horizontal displacement of the wave also obeys a power law for localised cases. ► Forced drainage in non-re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Colloids and surfaces. A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects Physicochemical and engineering aspects, 2013-12, Vol.438, p.21-27
Main Authors: Brito-Parada, P.R., Neethling, S.J., Cilliers, J.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
colloids
Containers
Drainage
Dynamics
equations
Finite element method
Foam drainage
Foams
Forced drainage
Liquids
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical modelling
Mathematical models
Power law
wetting front
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Summary:[Display omitted] ► The dynamics of the wetting front in forced foam drainage are studied numerically. ► The model benefits from the use of adaptive, unstructured finite element meshing. ► The horizontal displacement of the wave also obeys a power law for localised cases. ► Forced drainage in non-rectangular containers is simulated for the first time. ► Different wetting front regions in non-rectangular cases also adjust to a power law. Forced foam drainage experiments, in which liquid is added at a constant rate at the top of the foam, are studied numerically. The aim of these experiments is to investigate the change in liquid fraction as the resulting drainage wave propagates through the system. A finite element implementation of the foam drainage equation is used to carry out two-dimensional simulations, taking advantage of mesh adaptivity techniques to accurately resolve the dynamics of the wetting front. First, the effects of changes in the liquid addition area at the top of a rectangular container are studied, showing that the variation of the position of the wave front exhibits a power law with time not only for the vertical displacement but also for the horizontal propagation. Then, for uniform addition scenarios, the effect of changes in the geometry of the container are analysed, finding that a power law also describes well the position of the different regions of the drainage wave with time.
ISSN:0927-7757
1873-4359
DOI:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2013.02.013