IB2d Reloaded: a more powerful Python and MATLAB implementation of the immersed boundary method

Abstract

The immersed boundary (IB) method is an elegant way to fully couple the motion of a fluid and deformations of an immersed elastic structure. In that vein, the IB2d software allows for expedited explorations of fluid-structure interaction for beginners and veterans to the field of computational fluid dynamics. While most open-source computational fluid dynamics codes are written in low-level programming environments, IB2d was specifically written in high-level programming environments to make its accessibility extend beyond scientists with vast programming experience. Although previously introduced by Battista et al. 2006 many improvements and additions have been made to the software to allow for even more robust models of material properties for the elastic structures, including a data analysis package for both the fluid and immersed structure data, an improved time-stepping scheme for higher accuracy solutions, and functionality for modeling slight fluid density variations as given by the Boussinesq approximation.