We consider the time-harmonic scalar wave equation in junctions of several different
periodic half-waveguides. In general this problem is not well-posed. Several papers
propose radiation conditions, i.e., the prescription of the behavior of the
solution at the infinities. This ensures uniqueness — except for a countable set
of frequencies which correspond to the resonances — and yields existence
when one is able to apply Fredholm’s alternative. This solution is called
the outgoing solution. However, such radiation conditions are difficult to
handle numerically. In this paper, we propose so-called transparent boundary
conditions which enable us to characterize the outgoing solution. Moreover,
the problem set in a bounded domain containing the junction with these
transparent boundary conditions is of Fredholm type. These transparent boundary
conditions are based on Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators whose construction is
described in the paper. Contrary to the other approaches, the advantage of this
approach is that a numerical method can be naturally derived in order to
compute the outgoing solution. Numerical results illustrate and validate the
method.