ABSTRACT
The Stokes equations have been obtained in the asymptotic case where Re 1. However, the condition Re 1 is quite vague and it thus desirable to have an idea of the error we make when we use the Stokes approximation, instead of the full Navier-Stokes equations, to model a flow with a given (small!) value of the Reynolds number. In order to answer this question, we consider two generic cases for which the first-order correction O(Re) to the Stokes solution can be obtained in a fairly simple way. These cases deal with the uniform flow around a sphere or around an infinite cylinder.
