The accuracy and computational efficiency of the method of wave superposition for the computation of acoustic fields.

The method of wave superposition is a numerical method for calculating the radiation from arbitrarily shaped bodies. The main advantage of the method is that the accuracy of a superposition solution can be assessed by comparing the body’s specified normal surface velocity with that calculated using the method of wave superposition. While this method also suffers from the same nonuniqueness problems as other methods, this self-checking procedure will indicate if a particular solution is inaccurate, thus giving an effective way of alleviating the problem. The computing time and memory requirements depend on the size of the system of linear equations generated by the method of wave superposition. The size depends on the complexity of the surface velocity, the complexity of the structure’s shape, the required solution accuracy, and the frequency. A certain amount of computational effort is also required in order to check the accuracy of a superposition solution. An example will be solved using the method of superposition to illustrate the process.