Modeling the scalar wave equation with Nyström methods

Abstract

High-accuracy numerical schemes for modeling of the scalar wave equation based on Nyström methods are developed in this paper. Space is discretized by using the pseudospectral algorithm. For the time discretization, Nyström methods are used. A fourth-order symplectic Nyström method with pseudospectral spatial discretization is presented. This scheme is compared with a commonly used second-order scheme and a fourth-order nonsymplectic Nyström method. For a typical time-step size, the second-order scheme exhibits spatial dispersion errors for long-time simulations, while both fourth-order schemes do not suffer from these errors. Numerical comparisons show that the fourth-order symplectic algorithm is more accurate than the fourth-order nonsymplectic one. The capability of the symplectic Nyström method in approximately preserving the discrete energy for long-time simulations is also demonstrated.