Synchrotron-based radioscopy employing spatio-temporal micro-resolution for studying fast phenomena in liquid metal foams

Investigations of pore coalescence and individual cell wall collapse in an expanding liquid metal foam by means of X‐ray radioscopy with spatio‐temporal micro‐resolution are reported. By using white synchrotron radiation for imaging, the rupture of a film and the subsequent merger of two neighbouring bubbles could be recorded with a time sampling rate of 40000 frames s−1 (25 µs exposure time) and a spatial sampling rate of 20 µm. The rupture time of a cell wall was found to be in the range of 300 µs. This value is in agreement with theoretical considerations which assume an inertia‐dominated rupture time of cell walls in liquid metal foams.