A plane-wave singularity subtraction technique for the classical Dirichlet and Neumann combined field integral equations

Abstract

This paper presents expressions for the classical combined field integral equations for the solution of Dirichlet and Neumann exterior Helmholtz problems on the plane, in terms of smooth (continuously differentiable) integrands. These expressions are obtained by means of a singularity subtraction technique based on pointwise plane-wave expansions of the unknown density function. In particular, a novel regularization of the hypersingular operator is obtained, which, unlike regularizations based on Maue’s integration-by-parts formula, does not give rise to involved Cauchy principal value integrals. Moreover, the expressions for the combined field integral operators and layer potentials presented in this contribution can be numerically evaluated at target points that are arbitrarily close to the boundary without severely compromising their accuracy. A variety of numerical examples in two spatial dimensions that consider three different Nyström discretizations for smooth domains and domains with corners—one of which is based on direct application of the trapezoidal rule—demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed higher-order singularity subtraction approach.