Local on-surface radiation condition for multiple scattering of waves from convex obstacles

Abstract

We propose a novel on-surface radiation condition to approximate the outgoing solution to the Helmholtz equation in the exterior of several impenetrable convex obstacles. Based on a local approximation of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator and a local formula for wave propagation, this new method simultaneously accounts for the outgoing behavior of the solution as well as the reflections arising from the multiple obstacles. The method involves tangential derivatives only, avoiding the use of integration over the surfaces of the obstacles. As a consequence, the method leads to sparse matrices and O(N) complexity. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed method. Possible improvements and extensions are also discussed.