Quiz # 1

Q1-
Radioactive contaminant contained in a closed reactor. The amount of its uniformly
distribution is measured by its concentration 𝑐 (Bq/L). The contaminant decreases
at a decay rate proportional to its concentration; that is 𝐷𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑦 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = −𝑘𝑐 where
𝑘 is a constant with units of 𝑑𝑎𝑦 −1 . Therefore, a mass balance for the reactor can
be written as
𝑑𝑐
= −𝑘𝑐
𝑑𝑡
a) If 𝑘 = 0.175 𝑑−1 solve this equation from 𝑡 = 0 to 𝑡 = 1 𝑑𝑎𝑦 using
Euler’s method. Employ a step size of 𝑡 = 0.1, the concentration 𝑐 at 𝑡 = 0
is 100 (Bq/L).

b) What change is required to make the results more accurate?

Ans.
a)

𝑐(𝑡𝑖+1 ) − 𝑐(𝑡𝑖 )
= − 𝑘 𝑐(𝑡𝑖 )
𝑡𝑖+1 − 𝑡𝑖
𝑐(𝑡𝑖+1 ) = 𝑐(𝑡𝑖 ) − (𝑘 𝑐(𝑡𝑖 ))∆𝑡

The first two steps

𝑐(0.1) = 100 − 0.175(100)0.1 = 98.25 𝐵𝑞/𝐿

𝑐(0.2) = 98.25 − 0.175(98.25)0.1 = 96.5306 𝐵𝑞/𝐿

The process can be continued to give the following table

t c
0 100
0.1 98.2500
 0.2 96.5306
0.3 94.8413
0.4 93.1816
0.5 91.5509
0.6 89.9488
0.7 88.3747
0.8 86.8281
0.9 85.3086
1 83.8157

b) The results can be more accurate if the step size decreases