Analytical Behaviour of Solutions of Boundary Integral Equations for a Nonsmooth Region

The Dirichlet problem for Helmholtz's equation in a domain exterior to some bounded smooth boundary in two dimensionsmay be solved by means of a combined potential of the singleand double layers. In this paper, the problem arising from allowingcorner points on the boundary is investigated. The resultingnoncompact operator is effectively split into singular and compactparts. By using the Mellin transforms, the equation can be convertedinto some Cauchy-type singular integral equations. Consequently,the singular form of the solution is found in terms of r^ßat a corner with 0>ß>1. As a first step towarddeveloping new numerical methods for the problem, one typicalexample is presented to demonstrate the slow convergence ofexisting methods without any modifications. Then the mesh-gradingtechnique designed for singular equations is successfully implementedto restore the order of convergence.