Evaluation of the Perfectly Matched Layer for Computational Acoustics

The perfectly matched layer (PML) recently formulated by Berenger for the absorption of radiated/scattered waves in computational electromagnetics is adapted to computational acoustics, and its effectiveness as a nonreflecting boundary is examined. The excellent absorbing ability of the PML is demonstrated by its small reflection coefficient for a plane wave incident on a plane interface. However, additional frequency-domain and time-domain solutions show that the PML may not be an appropriate computational boundary if the analyst is only interested in the response of the radiator/scatterer and/or the acoustic field in the vicinity of the radiator/scatterer.