Going with the Flow

The newest project that has landed in my path comes from my Linear Systems class. My group and I have chosen to tackle a Flow Rate problem. The beauty about this project is that we have done similar examples in class already; therefore, we have a basic understanding of what is our expected solution. The tricky part comes from the actual system we are looking at.

Flow Rate problems are generally easy when there aren’t that many flow rates to determine. In the first picture we see only 4 containers which means there are only 4 flow rates to solve for. This can easily be set up as a 4x4 matrix and solved.

Our system is more like the one below. There are numerous containers which means that there are numerous flow rates. The numerous flow rates cause the problem to become a little more complex. Instead of the solution being a 4x4 matrix, it now becomes a 7x7, 8x8, or 9x9.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how many flow rates we have in our systems. As long as we account for them all, then we can look back at a simpler system and follow the same steps over and over again.