Analysis of stretched grids as buffer zones in simulations of wave propagation

A zone of increasingly stretched grid is a robust and easy-to-use way to avoid unwanted reflections at artificial boundaries in wave propagating simulations. In such a buffer zone there are two main damping mechanisms, dissipation and under-resolution that turns a traveling wave into an evanescent wave. We present analysis in one and two space dimensions showing that evanescent decay through under-resolution is a very efficient way to damp waves. The analysis is supported by numerical computations.