Numerical simulations of a Langevin dynamics of wetting

Considers numerical simulations of the Langevin equations recently proposed by Abraham et al. (1990) to model the spreading of a fluid on a substrate. A dependence upon the temperature is found in both the dynamical and the static properties. The contact angle, as a function of the parameters, is calculated in the partial wetting case. A precursor film with constant speed is observed in the complete wetting phase. The fluid above the precursor film is found to behave in time as t alpha , with alpha function of the height of the fluid. At low temperature, alpha is smaller than 1/2 and larger at high temperature. The profile of the fluid is found to be close to a parabola, at low temperature.