Discrete non‐local absorbing boundary condition for exterior problems governed by Helmholtz equation

Published in Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids Vol. 29 (5), pp. 605-621, 1999
doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0363(19990315)29:5<605::AID-FLD808>3.0.CO;2-M

Abstract

The finite element method is employed to approximate the solutions of the Helmholtz equation for water wave radiation and scattering in an unbounded domain. A discrete, non‐local and non‐reflecting boundary condition is specified at an artificial external boundary by the DNL method, yielding an equivalent problem that is solved in a bounded domain. This procedure formulates a boundary value problem in a bounded region by imposing a relation in the discrete medium between the nodal values at the two last layers. For plane geometry, this relation can be found by straightforward eigenvalue decomposition. For circular geometry, the plane condition is applied at the external layer and this condition is condensed through a structured annular region, resulting in a condition at an inner radius. Exterior problems with a bounded internal physical obstacle are considered. It is well‐known that these kind of problems are well‐posed, and have a unique solution. Numerical studies based on standard Galerkin methodology examine the dependence of the DNL condition with respect to the circular annular region width. The DNL condition is compared with local boundary conditions of several orders. Numerical examples confirm the important improvement in accuracy obtained by the DNL method over standard conditions.