The Laplacian and the added drag term in the Brinkman equation must have the same dimensions. Therefore
The length is a hydrodynamic screening length. When the viscous coefficients are identical in the two terms, the corresponding permeability is .
Taking the curl of the Brinkman equation eliminates pressure and the constant matrix velocity. With and vorticity , the Brinkman swimming sheet equation is
The surface conditions are conditions on partial derivatives evaluated on the moving boundary:
At infinity, and . The derivative of along the surface also equals , because there, so a convenient gauge has . Decaying perturbations and the force-free condition determine the swimming solution.