Simulations of fluttering leaves dissipating heat

Leaves may flutter in light winds for the purpose of convective and evaporative heat transfer. We will simulate the passive fluid-structure interaction of leaves fluttering using the immersed boundary method. Computational simulations have been conducted in two dimensions using the software library IB2d. We will discuss the models developed to appropriately study the heat dissipation and how we have incorporated these thermal dynamics coupled with the fluid flow into IB2d. We will present results of the simulations where we have studied the impact of varying Reynolds and Peclet numbers.