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Topic: Mass balance with differential equations of two tanks empytying  (Read 4394 times)

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Offline Sam1111

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Mass balance with differential equations of two tanks empytying
« on: October 23, 2009, 06:03:08 PM »
I'm studying for a mathematical modelling exam for which we had some lectures on mass balance and Euler's method to solve differential equations.

I'm having trouble with a past exam question relating to mass balance and differential equations. 
I've attached the question and what I've come up with but I'm not sure how to solve them as there is a square root of a negative number?

Could someone have a go at making the two differential equations so can be solved with Euler's method please.


The second part to the question is to make a single step with Euler's method to predict both tank levels after 5 seconds.
Thanks in advance
Sam

Offline TheCrazyAnon

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Re: Mass balance with differential equations of two tanks empytying
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2009, 05:23:46 AM »
Your model breaks down when you try to get it to predict something which is physically impossible. Like in this question, h2>h1 which means that tank 2 is at a higher potential energy than tank 1. Basic physics dictates that the flow can never be in the direction you have assigned in the model. Hence the breakdown.


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