  The influence of an underlying carrier flow on the terminal velocity of
sedimenting particles is investigated both analytically and numerically. Our
theoretical framework works for a general class of (laminar or turbulent)
velocity fields and, by means of an ordinary perturbation expansion at small
Stokes number, leads to closed partial differential equations (PDE) whose
solutions contain all relevant information on the sedimentation process. The
set of PDE's are solved by means of direct numerical simulations for a class of
2D cellular flows (static and time dependent) and the resulting phenomenology
is analysed and discussed.
