THE DIFFRACTION OF AN INHOMOGENEOUS PLANE-WAVE BY A WEDGE

The diffraction of an inhomogeneous plane wave by a wedge is investiga ted. An integral representation for the total field is obtained and th en evaluated by a uniform asymptotic procedure. The solution is expres sed in the form of the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD) so that it can be applied to calculate the scattering from more compl ex shapes. The shadow and reflection boundaries of the geometrical opt ics field are found to be displaced from their conventional locations. The extent of the transition regions is also described. The solution is then extended to account for dissipative losses in the medium surro unding the wedge. To demonstrate the accuracy of the UTD solution, num erical results are presented and compared with those calculated from a n eigenfunction solution.