  We investigate the hydrodynamic properties of a fluid simulated with a
mesoscopic solvent model. Two distinct regimes are identified, the `particle
regime' in which the dynamics is gas-like, and the `collective regime' where
the dynamics is fluid-like. This behavior can be characterized by the Schmidt
number, which measures the ratio between viscous and diffusive transport.
Analytical expressions for the tracer diffusion coefficient, which have been
derived on the basis of a molecular-chaos assumption, are found to describe the
simulation data very well in the particle regime, but important deviations are
found in the collective regime. These deviations are due to hydrodynamic
correlations. The model is then extended in order to investigate self-diffusion
in colloidal dispersions. We study first the transport properties of heavy
point-like particles in the mesoscopic solvent, as a function of their mass and
number density. Second, we introduce excluded-volume interactions among the
colloidal particles and determine the dependence of the diffusion coefficient
on the colloidal volume fraction for different solvent mean-free paths. In the
collective regime, the results are found to be in good agreement with previous
theoretical predictions based on Stokes hydrodynamics and the Smoluchowski
equation.
