Stoke’s Law

A spherical grain settling through a fluid at low Reynolds numbers is acted upon by forces:

FG - downward-directed force of gravity

FB upward-directed force of buoyancy

FD - upward-directed force of fluid drag , which tends to retard the downward settling of the
grain.

As a grain begins to settle, the force of gravity exceeds the combined forces of bouyancy
and drag and the particle accelerates.

As the particle accelerates downward, the force of drag increases to the point that the
force of gravity exactly equals the combined forces of bouyancy and drag. At this point, the grain
is in force balance and will continue to settle at a constant velocity, essentially equal to the
velocity it held just prior to the balancing of forces.

The force of gravity is equal to the volume of a sphere multiplied by its grain density
multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity (see left side of equation below).

The force of bouyancy is similar, except that the density of the fluid replaces the density
of the grain (see left-hand term in equation below).

The force of drag on a spherical grain will not be derived here, but can be found in any
fluid mechanics text and is shown in the second term below.

In this equation, d is grain diameter, ρf is the density of the fluid, ρg is the density of the
settling grain, CD is the dimensionless coefficent of drag, V is the velocity of the settling grain,
and g is the acceleration due to gravity.
 By moving the force of bouyancy to the right side of the equation and cancelling terms,
one obtains the following.

Solving for V, the velocity of the settling grain, the equation becomes the following:

The coefficient of drag appropriate for a smooth, spherical grain settling under slow
laminar flow, low particle concentrations, and low grain Reynolds numbers is the following,
where μ is the viscosity of the fluid,

and grain Reynolds number (Reg) is:

which makes the coefficient of drag under these conditions equal to the following:

Inserting the coefficient of drag into the fourth equation above (solved in terms of V2),
leads to the following statement of Stoke's Law.