COLLABORATION IN BASIC SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (COBASE)

"Acoustic and Rheological Processes in Aqueous Foams," was the subject of R. Glynn Holt and Iskander Akhatov’s collaborative research at Boston University. They began this six-month project in July 1999 with the principal objective of modeling the dynamics of foam drops. In addition, their long-term goal is to develop an integrated theoretical/experimental technique for determination of rheological properties (shear modulus, etc.) as a function of the foam’s gas volume content.

The experiments proved to be successful. Specifically, they obtained a nonlinear model for describing the dynamics of wet foam drops with the gas volume content (void fraction) as a parameter of the model. This model will provide the basis for developing a comprehensive description of foam rheology. One critical difference between their model and effective medium models is that it can incorporate a time-varying void fraction.

The results of this study have already been presented at the fall meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. Holt and Akhatov are currently preparing a manuscript for publication and developing another NSF grant proposal to continue their collaboration.