A new setup for giant soap films characterization

Sandrine Mariot (1) , Marina Pasquet (1) , Vincent Klein (1) , Frédéric Restagno (1) , Emmanuelle Rio (1)

1 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique des Solides

Artists, using empirical knowledge, manage to generate and play with giant soap films and bubbles. Until now, scientific studies of soap films generated at a controlled velocity and without any feeding from the top, studied films of a few square centimeters. The present work aims to present a new setup to generate and characterize giant soap films (2 m × 0.7 m). Our setup is enclosed in a humidity-controlled box of 2.2 m high, 1 m long, and 0.75 m large. Soap films are entrained by a fishing line withdrawn out of a bubbling solution at various velocities. We measure the maximum height of the generated soap films, as well as their lifetime, thanks to automatic detection. This is allowed by light-sensitive resistors collecting the light reflected on the soap films and ensures robust statistical measurements. In the meantime, thickness measurements are performed with a UV-VIS-spectrometer, allowing us to map the soap film's thickness over time.

Domaines: Physique [physics]; Matière Condensée [cond-mat]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Sandrine Mariot, Marina Pasquet, Vincent Klein, Frédéric Restagno, Emmanuelle Rio. A new setup for giant soap films characterization. European Physical Journal E: Soft matter and biological physics, 2021, 44 (4), pp.52. ⟨10.1140/epje/s10189-021-00054-5⟩. ⟨hal-04030582⟩