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An efficient full approximation storage (FAS) Multigrid algorithm is used to solve a range of droplet spreading flows modelled as a coupled set of non‐linear lubrication equations. The algorithm is fully implicit and has embedded within it an adaptive time‐stepping scheme that enables the same to be optimized in a controlled manner subject to a specific error tolerance. The method is first validated against a range of analytical and existing numerical predictions commensurate with droplet spreading and then used to simulate a series of new, three‐dimensional flows consisting of droplet motion on substrates containing topographic and wetting heterogeneities. The latter are of particular interest and reveal how droplets can be made to spread preferentially on substrates owing to an interplay between different topographic and surface wetting characteristics. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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