Three-dimensional acoustic scattering by layered media: a novel surface formulation with operator expansions implementation

The scattering of acoustic waves by irregular structures plays an important role in a wide range of problems of scientific and technological interest. This contribution focuses on the rapid and highly accurate numerical approximation of solutions of Helmholtz equations coupled across irregular periodic interfaces meant to model acoustic waves incident upon a multi-layered medium. We describe not only a novel surface formulation for the problem in terms of boundary integral operators (Dirichlet–Neumann operators), but also a Boundary Perturbation methodology (the Method of Operator Expansions) for its numerical simulation. The method requires only the discretization of the layer interfaces (so that the number of unknowns is an order of magnitude smaller than volumetric approaches), while it avoids not only the need for specialized quadrature rules but also the dense linear systems characteristic of Boundary Integral/Element Methods. The approach is a generalization to multiple layers of Malcolm & Nicholls' Operator Expansions algorithm for dielectric structures with two layers. As with this precursor, this approach is efficient and spectrally accurate.