Instabilities of soap film structures in square cuboid frame

ABSTRACT

Through the simulations performed with the Surface Evolver, we explored the T1s and the eight-fold vertex related topological changes in the square cuboid frame by changing the axial ratio λ and the liquid fraction ϕ. A stability diagram is provided to illustrate the instabilities encountered in any quasi-static process. Metastable film configurations are always accompanied by pre-emptive instabilities, while the instabilities of stable film configurations are not triggered until the central quadrilateral film steadily vanishes.

KEYWORDS:

• Foams
• Structural transitions
• Metastability
• Soap films

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. K.A.Brakke for his help with the Surface Evolver simulation. W. Chen is grateful to Z. H. Zhang for providing helpful advice. This project financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. U1860107 and 51274137).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number NO.51274137,NO.U1860107].