We consider the Navier-Stokes system in a periodic porous medium Omega
(epsilon) where epsilon is the characteristic pore size. The viscosity
is of order epsilon(beta) With 0 less than or equal to beta less than
or equal to 3/2, sufficiently close to the critical exponent beta = 3
/2. An asymptotic expansion for the velocity and the pressure, in term
s of the local Reynolds number Re-epsilon = epsilon(3-2 beta) is set a
nd a second-order error estimate is proved.