Multilevel fast multipole algorithm for acoustic wave scattering by truncated ground with trenches

The multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is extended to solve for acoustic wave scattering by very large objects with three-dimensional arbitrary shapes. Although the fast multipole method as the prototype of MLFMA was introduced to acoustics early, it has not been used to study acoustic problems with millions of unknowns. In this work, the MLFMA is applied to analyze the acoustic behavior for very large truncated ground with many trenches in order to investigate the approach for mitigating gun blast noise at proving grounds. The implementation of the MLFMA is based on the Nystrom method to create matrix equations for the acoustic boundary integral equation. As the Nystrom method has a simpler mechanism in the generation of far-interaction terms, which MLFMA acts on, the resulting scheme is more efficient than those based on the method of moments and the boundary element method (BEM). For near-interaction terms, the singular or near-singular integrals are evaluated using a robust technique, which differs from that in BEM. Due to the enhanced efficiency, the MLFMA can rapidly solve acoustic wave scattering problems with more than two million unknowns on workstations without involving parallel algorithms. Numerical examples are used to demonstrate the performance of the MLFMA with report of consumed CPU time and memory usage.