Evidence of thin-film precursors formation in hydrokinetic and atomistic simulations of nano-channel capillary filling

We present hydrokinetic Lattice Boltzmann and Molecular Dynamics simulations of capillary filling of highly wetting fluids in nano-channels, which provide clear evidence of the formation of thin precursor films, moving ahead of the main capillary front. The dynamics of the precursor films is found to obey a square-root law as the main capillary front, z(2)(t) infinity t, although with a larger prefactor, which we find to take the same value for both geometries under inspection. Both hydrokinetic and Molecular Dynamics approaches indicate a precursor film thickness of the order of one tenth of the capillary diameter. The quantitative agreement between the hydrokinetic and atomistic methods indicates that the formation and propagation of thin precursors can be handled at a mesoscopic/hydrokinetic level, thereby opening the possibility of using hydrokinetic methods to space-time scales and complex geometries of direct experimental relevance. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2008