Coalescence in Two-Dimensional Foams: A Purely Statistical Process Dependent on Film Area

While coalescence is ultimately the most drastic destabilization process in foams, its underlying processes are still unclear. To better understand them, we track individual coalescence events in two-dimensional foams at controlled capillary pressure. We obtain statistical information revealing the influence of the different parameters which have been previously proposed to explain coalescence. Our main conclusion is that coalescence probability is simply proportional to the area of the thin film separating two bubbles, suggesting that coalescence is mostly stochastic.