Nearly isotropic propagation of spatially discretized waves (Q1329866)

This paper is concerned with some special properties of finite difference spatial discretizations of the differential equations of wave propagation. More specifically, the aim of the authors is to study to what extend the isotropy properties which are satisfied by the analytical solutions of these equations are also shared by the numerical solutions provided by the spatial discretizations. In this context, specifical measures for the numerical anisotropy and dispersion of the spatial discretizations are introduced. Then, these criteria are applied to some particular discretizations of the Lagrangian in two and three dimensions. As a consequence of this study, particular choices of the available parameters in a family of schemes which minimize the anisotropy and dispersion errors in two- and three-dimensional cases are obtained. Finally some remarks showing the advantage of the new spatial discretizations over the corresponding to the usual choices of the parameters are presented.