Thermal conductivity of aqueous foam

Thermal conductivity plays an important part in the response of aqueous foams used as geothermal drilling fluids. The thermal conductivity of these foams was measured at ambient conditions using the thermal conductivity probe technique. Foam densities studied were from 0.03 to 0.2 g/cm/sup 3/, corresponding to liquid volume fractions of the same magnitude. Microscopy of the foams indicated bubble sizes in the range 50 to 300 ..mu..m for nitrogen foams, and 30 to 150 ..mu..m for helium foams. Bubble shapes were observed to be polyhedral at low foam densities and spherical at the higher densities. The measured conductivity values ranged from 0.05 to 0.12 W/m-K for the foams studied. The predicted behavior in foam conductivity caused by a change in the conductivity of the discontinuous gas phase was observed using nitrogen or helium gas in the foams. Analysis of the probe response data required an interpretation using the full intergral solution to the heat conduction equation, since the thermal capacity of the foam was small relative to the thermal mass of the probe. The measurements of the thermal conductivity of the foams were influenced by experimental effects such as the probe input power, foam drainage, and the orientation of the probe and test cell. For nitrogen foams, the thermal conductivity vs liquid volume fraction was observed to fall between predictions based on the parallel ordering and Russell models for thermal conduction in heterogeneous materials