DRBEM solution of exterior nonlinear wave problem using FDM and LSM time integrations

The nonlinear wave equation is solved numerically in an exterior region. For the discretization of the space derivatives dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM) is applied using the fundamental solution of Laplace equation. The time derivative and the nonlinearity are treated as the nonhomogenity. The boundary integrals coming from the far boundary are eliminated using rational and exponential interpolation functions which have decay properties far away from the region of interest. The resulting system of ordinary differential equations in time are solved using finite difference method (FDM) with a relaxation parameter and least squares method (LSM). The proposed methods are examined with numerical test problems in which the behaviours of solutions are known. Although it gives almost the same accuracy with the DRBEM+FDM procedure, DRBEM+LSM solution procedure is preferred, since it is a direct method without the need of a parameter. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved