Boundary elements with mesh refinements for the wave equation

Abstract

The solution of the wave equation in a polyhedral domain in $\mathbb{R}^3$ admits an asymptotic singular expansion in a neighborhood of the corners and edges. In this article we formulate boundary and screen problems for the wave equation as equivalent boundary integral equations in time domain, study the regularity properties of their solutions and the numerical approximation. Guided by the theory for elliptic equations, graded meshes are shown to recover the optimal approximation rates known for smooth solutions. Numerical experiments illustrate the theory for screen problems. In particular, we discuss the Dirichlet and Neumann problems, as well as the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator and applications to the sound emission of tires.