We apply the fast multipole method (FMM) accelerated boundary element method (BEM) for the three-dimensional (3D) Helmholtz equation, and as a result, large-scale acoustic scattering problems involving 400000 elements are solved efficiently. This is an extension of the fast multipole BEM for two-dimensional (2D) acoustic problems developed by authors recently. Some new improvements are obtained. In this new technique, the improved Burton-Miller formulation is employed to over-come non-uniqueness difficulties in the conventional BEM for exterior acoustic problems. The computational efficiency is further improved by adopting the FMM and the block diagonal preconditioner used in the generalized minimum residual method (GMRES) iterative solver to solve the system matrix equation. Numerical results clearly demonstrate the complete reliability and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. It is potentially useful for solving large-scale engineering acoustic scattering problems.
