  We propose a mathematical derivation of Brinkman's force for a cloud of
particles immersed in an incompressible fluid. Our starting point is the Stokes
or steady Navier-Stokes equations set in a bounded domain with the disjoint
union of N balls of radius 1/N removed, and with a no-slip boundary condition
for the fluid at the surface of each ball. The large N limit of the fluid
velocity field is governed by the same (Navier-)Stokes equations in the whole
domain, with an additional term (Brinkman's force) that is (minus) the total
drag force exerted by the fluid on the particle system. This can be seen as a
generalization of Allaire's result in [Arch. Rational Mech. Analysis 113
(1991), 209-259] who treated the case of motionless, periodically distributed
balls. Our proof is based on slightly simpler, though similar homogenization
techniques, except that we avoid the periodicity assumption and use instead the
phase-space empirical measure for the particle system. Similar equations are
used for describing the fluid phase in various models for sprays.
