Rheology of milk foams produced by steam injection

Rheology of milk foams generated by steam injection was studied during the transient destabilization process using steady flow and dynamic oscillatory techniques: yield stress (τ(y) ) values were obtained from a stress ramp (0.2 to 25 Pa) and from strain amplitude sweep (0.001 to 3 at 1 Hz of frequency); elastic (G') and viscous (G″) moduli were measured by frequency sweep (0.1 to 10 Hz at 0.05 of strain); and the apparent viscosity (η(a) ) was obtained from the flow curves generated from the stress ramp. The effect of plate roughness and the sweep time on τ(y) was also assessed. Yield stress was found to increase with plate roughness whereas it decreased with the sweep time. The values of yield stress and moduli-G' and G″-increased during foam destabilization as a consequence of the changes in foam properties, especially the gas volume fraction, ϕ, and bubble size, R(32) (Sauter mean bubble radius). Thus, a relationship between τ(y) , ϕ, R(32) , and σ(surface tension) was established. The changes in the apparent viscosity, η, showed that the foams behaved like a shear thinning fluid beyond the yield point, fitting the modified Cross model with the relaxation time parameter (λ) also depending on the gas volume fraction. Overall, it was concluded that the viscoelastic behavior of the foam below the yield point and liquid-like behavior thereafter both vary during destabilization due to changes in the foam characteristics.

Studying the transient rheology of milk foams during destabilization contributes to our knowledge of the relationships between the changes in foam properties: texture and mouth feel during the consumption of hot foamed beverages.