Digital waveguides versus finite difference structures: Equivalence and mixed modeling

Digital waveguides and finite difference time domain schemes have been used in physical modeling of spatially distributed systems. Both of them are known to provide exact modeling of ideal one-dimensional (ID) band-limited wave propagation, and both of them can be composed to approximate two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) mesh structures. Their equal capabilities in physical modeling have been shown for special cases and have been assumed to cover generalized cases as well. The ability to form mixed models by joining substructures of both classes through converter elements has been proposed recently. In this paper, we formulate a general digital signal processing (DSP)-oriented framework where the functional equivalence of these two approaches is systematically elaborated and the conditions of building mixed models are studied. An example of mixed modeling of a 2D waveguide is presented.