Dislocation mechanisms in the plastic deformation of monodisperse wet foams within an expansion–contraction microfluidic geometry

Abstract

Densely packed wet foam was subjected to gradual expansion and contraction in a wide (1400–1800 μm) microfluidic channel to study localized plastic deformation events within the monodisperse bubble matrix. Dislocation glide, reflection, nucleation, and dipole transformations from extensional and compressive stresses were observed across a range of fluid flow rates and bubble packing densities. Disparate, cyclic reflections occur in two independent regions of the flowing foam, and the mechanisms of dislocation reflection under tension are expanded. The use of an asymmetric channel created a dichotomy in the model crystalline system between straighter, aligned bubble rows and curved, misaligned rows due to the corresponding streamlines within the channel. The resulting gradient in crystalline alignment had numerous effects on dislocation mobility and plastic deformation. 7/7 dipoles were found to rearrange to a more stable configuration aligned with the foam flow before dissociating. Dislocations comprising 5/5 dipoles (resembling the inverse-Stone–Wales defect in carbon nanostructures) were discovered to pass through one another via intermediate ring structures, which most commonly consisted of three dislocation pairs around a triangular-shaped central bubble.