Instabilities in liquid foams

Abstract

Instabilities play a central role in the physics of foams. Some that change the topology of a dry foam are indicated by the laws promulgated by Plateau in his 1873 book. Their occurrence is less clearly predictable in wet foams. Various other instabilities are related to gravitational loading and gas compressibility. We gather up many examples as a guide to future research and identify problems that remain, including what we call pre-emptive instabilities, which occur before they are expected on the basis of Plateau's laws.