City University of Hong Kong

Department of Biomedical
Engineering

Lab. Sheet No. : 439

TITLE : Mathematical Modelling by

Analytical and Numerical Methods

Lab. AREA : Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

Laboratory

Room No.: Rm. P7540

Major Equip. : PC with MS Windows with MATLAB

software

Last Updated : 30 Aug, 2020

Course in Dr. Yajing SHEN

charge :

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 City University of Hong Kong

Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management

1.Title: Mathematical Modelling by Analytical and Numerical Methods

2.Objectives :

• To learn how a mathematical model can be formulated by analytical method to

simulate the behaviour of a simple physical system.
• To understand how a numerical method can be used to generate approximate
solutions for a physical system
• To learn how to develop software programs to implement the developed
analytical model and numerical model on a computer for simulating the
physical behaviour of the system.

3.Theory : A mathematical model can be broadly defined as a formulation or

equation that expresses the essential features of a physical system or
process in mathematical terms. Generally, the model can be
represented as a functional relationship of the form:

Dependent
variable
= f æç independen
variables
t
, parameters ,
forcing ö
÷
functions ø
è
where the dependent variable is a characteristic that usually reflects the
behaviour or state of the system; the independent variables are usually
the dimensions along which the system’s behaviour is being
determined; the parameters are reflective of the system’s properties or
composition; and the forcing functions are external influences acting
upon the system [1].

For many practical systems or applications, these models are often in

the form of differential equations. To make use of these models, it is
necessary to solve the functions to obtain the exact solutions and this is
often referred to as the analytical method. Unfortunately, it is not
always possible to find the exact solutions for the models; there are
many mathematical models which cannot be solved exactly. In many
of these cases, the only alternative is to develop a numerical solution
that approximates the exact solution. Numerical methods are
techniques by which mathematical problems are formulated so that
they can be solved with arithmetic operations. These methods often
involve large amount of tedious arithmetic calculations which are best
handled by digital computers.

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4.Equipment : (1) One set of PC computer with MS Windows

(2) MATLAB* software

( * MATLAB is an intuitive language and a technical computing

environment for providing core mathematics and advanced graphical
tools for data analysis, visualization, and algorithm and application
development. )

5. Problem Statement:

A parachutist of mass 68.1 kg jumps out of a stationary hot air balloon. The air
resistance force on the parachutist is assuming to be proportional to the square of the
velocity with the air drag coefficient of 0.25 kg/m (See Eq.1).

Fair resistance = cv 2 Eq.1

c is the drag coefficient,
v is the velocity of the free falling parachutist
Fair resistance is the air resistance force

i. Apply analytical method to verify the following equation (Eq.2) for

calculating the velocity of the free falling parachutist

gm æ gc ö
v (t ) = tanhç t÷ Eq.2
c è m ø
v is the velocity of the free falling parachutist
m is the mass of the parachutist, 68.1 kg
g is the gravitational constant, 9.81 m/s2
c is the air draft coefficient, 0.25 kg/m
t is time in seconds
tanh is the hyperbolic tangent

Hint: dx 1 1+ x
ò 1- x = ln
2 2 1- x
+ C,

1 é1 + x ù
tanh -1( x ) = lnê
2 ë 1 - x úû

ii. Based on Eq.2, develop a MATLAB program to compute the velocity for the
first 12 seconds of the free falling parachutist with the step size of 2 seconds.

iii. Use Eq.2 to derive the terminal velocity when the parachutist is allowed to
free fall for an infinitely long time period. Apply a longer time period to the
MATLAB program developed in (ii) to find the terminal velocity and then
comment the two results.

Hint: Find tanh(∞) first before using Eq. 2 to calculate the terminal velocity
and tanh(∞)→1.
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 iv. Apply numerical method to verify the following equation (Eq. 3) for
approximating the exact solution of Eq. 2.

é c ù
v (ti+1) = v (ti ) + êg - v (t i )2 ú(ti+1 - t i ) Eq.3
ë m û

v. Based on Eq.3, develop MATLAB programs to compute the velocity for the
first 12 seconds of the free falling parachutist with the step size of 2 seconds

vi. Compare and comment the results obtained from (ii) and (v)

vii. Repeat (v) but reduce the step size to 0.5 seconds

viii. Compare and comment the results obtained from (ii) and (vii)

ix. Comment the difference in errors between (vi) and (viii)

Note:
a. All the computed results should be expressed in the form of tables and if
appropriate also in the form of graphs;
b. Functions should be used wherever possible to simply the program
structure and also to allow program codes to be re-used;
c. Program testing is an important part of software development. So, it is
important to verify the correctness of the developed program;
d. Use the ‘print screen’ button on the keyboard to capture the MATLAB
output display and insert the image into your Microsoft Word report
document file to prove that the computed results are actually generated
from MATLAB .

6. Reference:

Steven C. Chapra and Raymond P. Canale, Numerical Methods for Engineers with
Software and Programming Applications, Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill Higher
Education, ISBN 0-07-243193-8

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7. Submission Guidelines

i. Group Work
a. Form your own small group of 3/4 students;
b. Each group should submit a group coursework report and a CD with
MATLAB Programs stated in your report;
c. The group report should at least contain solutions for section 5 (i-ix).

ii. Submission Deadline

Submit the group report and MATLAB program CD on or before the deadline
announced on Blackboard.

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