Simulations of acoustic wave phenomena using high-order finite difference approximations

Numerical studies of hyperbolic initial boundary value problems (IBVP) in s everal space dimensions have been performed using high-order finite differe nce approximations. It is shown that for wave propagation problems, where t he wavelengths are small compared to the domain and long time integrations are needed, high-order schemes are superior to low-order ones. In fact, in two dimensions an acoustic lens is simulated, leading to large scale comput ations where high-order methods and powerful parallel computers are necessa ry if an accurate solution is to be obtained.