Viscous shear banding in foam

Shear banding is an important feature of flow in complex fluids. Essentially, shear bands refer to the coexistence of flowing and nonflowing regions in driven material. Understanding the possible sources of shear banding has important implications for a wide range of flow applications. In this regard, quasi-two-dimensional flow offers a unique opportunity to study competing factors that result in shear bands. One proposal for interpretation and analysis is the competition between intrinsic dissipation and an external source of dissipation. In this paper, we report on the experimental observation of the transition between different classes of shear bands that have been predicted to exist in cylindrical geometry as the result of this competition [ R. J. Clancy, E. Janiaud, D. Weaire and S. Hutzlet Eur. J. Phys. E 21 123 (2006)].