Flow past a porous sphere at small Reynolds number

low of an incompressible viscous fluid past a porous sphere has been discussed. The flow has been divided in three regions. The Region-I is the region inside the porous sphere in which the flow is governed by Brinkman equation with the effective viscosity different from that of the clear fluid. In Regions II and III clear fluid flows and Stokes and Oseen solutions are respectively valid. In all the three regions Stokes stream function is expressed in powers of Reynolds number. Stream function of Region II is matched with that of Region I at the surface of the sphere by the conditions suggested by Ochao-Tapia and Whitaker and it is matched with that of Oseen’s solutions far away from the sphere. It is found that the drag on the sphere reduces significantly when it is porous and it decreases with the increase of permeability of the medium.Received: February 7, 2002; revised: April 8, 2003 / June 9, 2004