Foam Drainage in Porous Media

In this paper we present a simple analysis of liquid drainage in foams confined in porous media. First we derive the equation for the evolution of the liquid saturation using general mass and momentum conservation arguments and phenomenological relations between the transport parameters and liquid saturation. We find an unusual foam drainage equation in which the determinant terms express the competition between the external force field, represented here by the gravity field, and capillary pressure gradient. We present analytical solutions of the drainage equation in three cases: (a) gravity forces are dominant over capillary forces, (b) capillary forces are dominant over gravity forces, and (c) capillary and gravity forces are comparable in order of magnitude.