Steady flows inside and around a fluid sphere at low Reynolds numbers

The present investigation is concerned with the theoretical evaluation of the flow patterns, both inside and outside of a fluid sphere moving in an immiscible fluid at low Reynolds numbers. The conducted analyses make use of an efficient semianalytical numerical procedure. The obtained solutions provide the flow patterns inside and outside of the sphere, the drag coefficient, and the effects of viscosity ratio and density ratio on the motion of a fluid sphere. It is found that for all the density ratios investigated, the density difference has almost no effect on the drag coefficient at low Reynolds numbers.