Generalized squirming motion in a Brinkman medium

Many microorganisms swim in complex media with porous structures such as biological mucus, soils, and aquifers. The squirmer model has been widely used as a tool to probe how properties of these complex media affect the swimming behavior of microorganisms. Here we generalize previous works by considering the non-axisymmetric squirming motion in a porous medium described by the Brinkman equation. We derive an analytical solution to the flow surrounding the squirmer and characterize its propulsion performance in terms of swimming speed, power dissipation, and efficiency. We draw comparisons with the case of generalized squirming motion in the Stokes limit and discuss the implications of our findings on locomotion in porous media.