Artificial boundary condition for Klein-Gordon equation by constructing mechanics structure

Abstract

An innovative local artificial boundary condition is proposed to numerically solve the Cauchy problem of the Klein-Gordon equation in an unbounded domain. Initially, the equation is considered as the axial wave propagation in a bar supported on a spring foundation. The numerical model is then truncated by replacing the half-infinitely long bar with an equivalent mechanical structure. The effective frequency-dependent stiffness of the half-infinitely long bar is expressed as the sum of rational terms using Pade approximation. For each term, a corresponding substructure composed of dampers and masses is constructed. Finally, the equivalent mechanical structure is obtained by parallelly connecting these substructures. The proposed approach can be easily implemented within a standard finite element framework by incorporating additional mass points and damper elements. Numerical examples show that with just a few extra degrees of freedom, the proposed approach effectively suppresses artificial reflections at the truncation boundary and exhibits first-order convergence.