Patent ID: 7739084

Claim:
A computer implemented method for assessing wave propagation arising in a physical system by obtaining a numerical approximation of the physical system to be simulated, the method comprising: defining, using a computer, a computational domain comprising a first grid having three dimensions and a plurality of first-grid cells, and a second grid having three dimensions and a plurality of second-grid cells, wherein the second grid is a refinement of at least part of the first grid, and wherein each of the first-grid cells and second-grid cells has one or more solution points at which values representing a physical quantity of the physical system to be simulated may be obtained, wherein defining the computational domain comprises defining the second grid to have a first refinement factor compared to the first grid in one of the three dimensions and to have a second refinement factor compared to the first grid in another of the three dimensions, and to have a third refinement factor compared to the first grid in the other of the three dimensions, and defining the first refinement factor to be different from the second refinement factor and the third refinement factor to be different to at least one of the first and second refinement factors; and performing, using the computer, an update procedure to obtain a value of the physical quantity for at least one solution point of every cell at a given stage in time.