Drop coalescence and liquid flow in a single Plateau border

International audienceWe report a comprehensive study of the flow of liquid triggered by injecting a droplet into a liquid foam microchannel, also called Plateau border. This drop-injected experiment reveals an intricate dynamics for the liquid redistribution, with two contrasting regimes observed, ruled either by inertia or viscosity. We devoted a previous study [Cohen, PRL 112, 218303 (2014)] to the inertial imbibition regime, unexpected at such small length scales. Here, we report other features of interest of the drop-injected experiment, related to the coalescence of the droplet with the liquid microchannel, to both the inertial and viscous regimes, and to the occurrence of liquid flow through the soap films as well as effects of the interfacial rheology. The transition between the two regimes is investigated and qualitatively accounted for. The relevance of our results to liquid foam drainage is tackled by considering the flow of liquid at the nodes of the network of interconnected microchannels. Extensions of our study to liquid foams are discussed