Nonlinear dynamics and transient growth of driven contact lines

We consider the theory of driven contact lines in a complete wetting scenar io and examine the effect of small scale localized surface disturbances on the global shape of the film profile. We compute how the nonlinear amplific ation scales with the precursor thickness of the film and the characteristi c width of the surface pattern. Nonlinear disturbances of the film profile are connected to "transient growth" in the linear stability analysis [Phys. Fluids 9, 530 (1997)]. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-6631 (99)02711-7].