Spontaneous mechanical self-assembly of monodisperse bubbles generally leads to disordered foams at low density: producing crystalline structures such as Kelvin foams has proven to be challenging experimentally, despite them being a minimum of energy. Here we show how bubbling in different fiber arrays controls foam architectures through a guided mechanical self-assembly. Analyzing X-ray tomography scans of solidified polymer foams using Steinhardt's parameters highlights clear signatures of Kelvin and hexagonal close packing crystalline foams, opening a novel route towards ordered hierarchical materials.
@article{arxiv.2409.20114,
title = {Guided mechanical self-assembly of bubbles in fiber arrays},
author = {Marwan Chammouma and Manon Jouanlanne and Antoine Egelé and Damien Favier and Jean Farago and Aurélie Hourlier-Fargette},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.20114},
year = {2024}
}