CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

We investigate the capillary driven collapse of a small contracting cavity or hole in a shear-thinning fluid. We find that shear-thinning effects accelerate the collapse of the cavity by decreasing the apparent liquid viscosity near the cavity´s moving front. Scaling arguments are used to derive a power-law relationship between the size of the cavity and the rate of collapse. The scaling predictions are then corroborated and fully characterized using high-fidelity simulations. The new findings have implications for natural and technological systems including neck collapse during bubble pinch-off, the integrity of perforated films and biological membranes, the stability of foams in the food industry, and the fabrication of nanopore based biosensors.