Numerical Simulation of Time-Dependent Wave Propagation Using Nonreflective Boundary Conditions

Solving numerically the wave equation for modelling wave propagation on an unbounded domain with complex geometry requires a truncation of the domain, to fit the infinite region on a finite computer. Minimizing the amount of spurious reflections requires in many cases the introduction of an artificial boundary and of associated nonreflecting boundary conditions. Here, a question arises, namely which boundary condition guarantees that the solution of the time dependent problem inside the artificial boundary coincides with the solution of the original problem in the infinite region. Recent investigations have shown that the accuracy and performance of numerical algorithms and the interpretation of the results critically depend on the proper treatment of external boundaries. Despite the computational speed of finite difference schemes and the robustness of finite elements in handling complex geometries the resulting numerical error consists of two independent contributions: the discretization error of the numerical method used and the spurious reflection generated at the artificial boundary. This spurious contribution travels back and substantially degrades the accuracy of the solution everywhere in the computational domain. Unless both error components are reduced systematically, the numerical solution does not converge to the solution of the original problem in the infinite region. In the present study we present and discuss absorbing boundary condition techniques for the time-dependent scalar wave equation in three spatial dimensions. In particular, exact conditions that annihilate wave harmonics on a spherical artificial boundary up to a given order are obtained and subsequently applied in numerical simulations by employing a finite differences implementation.