Accurate radiation boundary conditions for the time‐dependent wave equation on unbounded domains

Abstract

Asymptotic and exact local radiation boundary conditions (RBC) for the scalar time-dependent wave equation, first derived by Hagstrom and Hariharan, are reformulated as an auxiliary Cauchy problem for each radial harmonic on a spherical boundary. The reformulation is based on the hierarchy of local boundary operators used by Bayliss and Turkel which satisfy truncations of an asymptotic expansion for each radial harmonic. The residuals of the local operators are determined from the solution of parallel systems of linear first-order temporal equations. A decomposition into orthogonal transverse modes on the spherical boundary is used so that the residual functions may be computed efficiently and concurrently without altering the local character of the finite element equations. Since the auxiliary functions are based on residuals of an asymptotic expansion, the proposed method has the ability to vary separately the radial and transverse modal orders of the RBC. With the number of equations in the auxiliary Cauchy problem equal to the transverse mode number, this reformulation is exact. In this form, the equivalence with the closely related non-reflecting boundary condition of Grote and Keller is shown. If fewer equations are used, then the boundary conditions form high-order accurate asymptotic approximations to the exact condition, with corresponding reduction in work and memory. Numerical studies are performed to assess the accuracy and convergence properties of the exact and asymptotic versions of the RBC. The results demonstrate that the asymptotic formulation has dramatically improved accuracy for time domain simulations compared to standard boundary treatments and improved efficiency over the exact condition. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.