A particle experiences resistance while moving in a viscous fluid and this drag force increases in the vicinity of no-slip surfaces due to the wall effect. For a nonporous solid spherical particle steadily approaching an impermeable plane, Brenner analytically obtained the wall effect correction factor for the small Reynolds number (Brenner, 1961). For finite Reynolds numbers Wu and Lee calculated the correction factor from their numerical simulation (Wu, 1998). Unifying the results of these previous studies, we propose a compact form of the wall effect correction factor that is valid for Reynolds numbers less than 40. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.