Swimming in a Brinkman porous medium at low Reynolds number

Micro-organisms encounter heterogeneous viscous environments due to networks of obstacles embedded into viscous fluid media. In this talk we present a theoretical investigation of swimming in such a heterogeneous medium modeled by the Brinkman equation. We calculate analytically the flow field surrounding an idealized micro-swimmer, its propulsion speed as well as swimming efficiency. The analytical solutions allow us to probe the general characteristics of swimming in a heterogeneous viscous environment in comparison with the case in a purely viscous fluid.