The finite-difference frequency-domain (FDFD) method has important applications in the wave simulation of various wave equations. To promote the accuracy and efficiency for wave simulation with the FDFD method, we have developed a new 27-point FDFD stencil for 3D acoustic wave equation. In the developed stencil, the FDFD coefficients not only depend on the ratios of cell sizes in the x-, y-, and z-directions, but we also depend on the spatial sampling density (SD) in terms of the number of wavelengths per grid. The corresponding FDFD coefficients can be determined efficiently by making use of the plane-wave expression and the lookup table technique. We also develop a new way for designing an adaptive FDFD stencil by directly adding some correction terms to the conventional second-order FDFD stencil, which is simpler to use and easier to generalize. Corresponding dispersion analysis indicates that, compared to the optimal 27-point stencil derived from the average-derivative method (ADM), the developed adaptive 27-point stencil can reduce the required SD from approximately 4 to 2.2 points per wavelength (PPW) for a cubic mesh and to 2.7 PPW for a general cuboid mesh. Numerical examples of a 3D homogeneous model and SEG/EAGE salt-dome model indicate that the developed stencil is more accurate than the ADM 27-point stencil for cubic and general cuboid meshes, while requiring similar CPU time and computational memory as the ADM 27-point stencil for direct and iterative solvers.
3D frequency‐domain finite‐difference modeling of acoustic wave propagation using a massively parallel direct solver: a feasibility study