Numerical approximations of time domain boundary integral equation for wave propagation

Abstract: Boundary integral equation techniques are useful in thenumerical simulation of scattering problems for wave equations.Their advantage over methods based on partial di.erentialequations comes from the lack of phase errors in the wavepropagation and from the fact that only the boundary of thescattering object needs to be discretized. Boundary integraltechniques are often applied in frequency domain but recentlyseveral time domain integral equation methods are beingdeveloped.We study time domain integral equation methods for thescalar wave equation with a Galerkin discretization of twodi.erent integral formulations for a Dirichlet scatterer. The.rst method uses the Kirchho. formula for the solution of thescalar wave equation. The method is prone to get unstable modesand the method is stabilized using an averaging .lter on thesolution. The second method uses the integral formulations forthe Helmholtz equation in frequency domain, and this method isstable. The Galerkin formulation for a Neumann scattererarising from Helmholtz equation is implemented, but isunstable.In the discretizations, integrals are evaluated overtriangles, sectors, segments and circles. Integrals areevaluated analytically and in some cases numerically. Singularintegrands are made .nite, using the Du.y transform.The Galerkin discretizations uses constant basis functionsin time and nodal linear elements in space. Numericalcomputations verify that the Dirichlet methods are stable, .rstorder accurate in time and second order accurate in space.Tests are performed with a point source illuminating a plateand a plane wave illuminating a sphere.We investigate the On Surface Radiation Condition, which canbe used as a medium to high frequency approximation of theKirchho. formula, for both Dirichlet and Neumann scatterers.Numerical computations are done for a Dirichlet scatterer.