Exact wave field simulation for finite-volume scattering problems

An exact boundary condition is presented for scattering problems involving spatially limited perturbations of arbitrary magnitude to a background model in generally inhomogeneous acoustic media. The boundary condition decouples the wave propagation on a perturbed domain while maintaining all interactions with the background model, thus eliminating the need to regenerate the wave field response on the full model. The method, which is explicit, relies on a Kirchhoff-type integral extrapolation to update the boundary condition at every time step of the simulation. The Green's functions required for extrapolation through the background model are computed efficiently using wave field interferometry. (C) 2007 Acoustical Society of America.