Module 8: Flow at low and high Reynolds numbers
  Lecture 26: Creeping flow, Stokes-law and terminal velocity
 
 

  is the average velocity of the fluid, and  and are the up-and downstream  pressures. On substitution, the following equation is obtained:

 
Let us define,
   
 

  

 

The non–dimensionalized equation is, therefore, written as 

 

From the above-equation, it is clear that several approximations can be made to drop–out one or more terms from the equation, depending upon the range of , the three dimensionless groups obtained for the NS-equation. We will continue our discussion in this lecture to only two approximations of common engineering application:

  1. Low Re
  2. High Re