Home▸Physics & Mechanics▸Foam Drainage Simulator

🫧 Foam Drainage: How Bubbles Slowly Lose the Fight Against Gravity

Interactive 3D foam of bubbles with visible Plateau borders where adjusting liquid fraction shows gravity-driven drainage thinning the films until bubbles rupture.

Physics & Mechanics3DModerate60 FPS

A 3D foam of packed bubbles with a network of Plateau borders — the channels where three films meet — thins from the top down as gravity drains liquid into a growing puddle at the base, until films rupture.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Liquid fraction decays exponentially with height as the foam drains; Plateau border channel radius shrinks with the square root of local liquid content, and bubbles rupture once their film thins past a critical threshold.

🎮 How to Use

Set the initial liquid fraction and drainage speed, then watch the top of the foam dry out and pop while the bottom stays wet. Toggle gravity off to hold the foam uniformly wet, or hide the Plateau borders to see the bare bubble packing.

💡 Did You Know?

Real Plateau borders have concave triangular cross-sections shaped by three 120° film junctions (Plateau's laws) — the same geometry that makes soap-film networks minimize total surface area.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D foam structure where adjusting bubble size and liquid fraction shows how gravity drains liquid through Plateau borders until the foam collapses.

foam-drainageplateau-bordersfluid-dynamicssurface-tensionsoft-matterbubble-physicsphysics

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install