We have constructed a hybrid scheme for elastic‐wave propagation in two‐dimensional laterally inhomogeneous media. The algorithm is based on a combination of finite‐difference techniques and the boundary integral equation method. It involves a dedicated application of each of the two methods to specific domains of the model structure; finite‐difference techniques are applied to calculate a set of boundary values (wave field and stress field) in the vicinity of the heterogeneous domain. The continuation of the near‐field response is then calculated by means of the boundary integral equation method. In a numerical example, the hybrid method has been applied to calculate a plane‐wave response for an elastic lens embedded in a homogeneous environment. The example shows that the hybrid scheme enables more efficient modeling, with the same accuracy, than with pure finite‐difference calculations.
A Finite-Difference Time-Domain Technique for Nonlinear Elastic Media and Its Application to Nonlinear Lamb Wave Propagation