Absorbing boundary conditions for scalar waves in anisotropic media. Part 1: Time harmonic modeling

With the ultimate goal of devising effective absorbing boundary conditions (ABCs) for general anisotropic media, we investigate the accuracy aspects of local ABCs designed for the scalar anisotropic wave equation in the frequency domain (time harmonic case). The ABC analyzed in this paper is the perfectly matched discrete layers (PMDL). PMDL is a simple variant of perfectly matched layers (PML) and is equivalent to rational approximation-based local ABCs. Specifically, we derive a sufficient condition for PMDL to accurately absorb wave modes with outgoing group velocities and this condition turns out to be a simple bound on the PMDL parameters. The reflection coefficient derived in this paper clearly reveals that the PMDL absorption is based on group velocities, and not phase velocities, and hence a PMDL can be designed to correctly identify and accurately absorb all outgoing wave modes (even those with opposing signs of phase and group velocities). The validity of the sufficient condition is demonstrated through a series of frequency domain simulations. In part 2 of this paper [S. Savadatti, M.N. Guddati, Absorbing boundary conditions for scalar waves in anisotropic media. Part 2: Time-dependent modeling, J. Comput. Phys. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2010.05.017], the accuracy condition presented here is shown to govern both the well-posedness and accuracy aspects of PMDL designed for transient (time-dependent) modeling of scalar waves in anisotropic media.