Presented by-

Kushal S
Pratheek Manjunath
Suraj S Kattige
3
rd
semester, TCE
RVCE, Bangalore











The CONTINUITY
EQUATION



A Seminar Report for Applied Mathematics

CONTENTS
1. What is Continuity Equation?

2. Continuity Equation expressed in
Differential form
Integral form

3. Applications of Continuity in
Electromagnetism
Thermodynamics
Fluid Dynamics
Quantum Mechanics


4. Acknowledgements and References




What is Continuity Equation?!

A continuity equation in physics is a differential equation that describes the
transport of a conserved quantity. Since mass, energy, momentum, electric charge
and other natural quantities are conserved under their respective appropriate
conditions; a variety of physical phenomena may be described using continuity
equations.

Continuity equations are the (stronger) local form of conservation laws. All the
examples of continuity equations below express the same idea, which is: the total
amount (of the conserved quantity) inside any region can only change by the
amount that passes in or out of the region through the boundary.
A conserved quantity cannot increase or decrease, it can only move from place to
place.








The Continuity Equation:
1. Differential Form:

The differential form for a general continuity equation is

Where
is divergence,
t is time,
q is some quantity in transport (such as mass, charge, energy, momentum
or probability),
is the amount of q per unit volume (for example, if q is mass,
is the mass density),
f is a vector function describing the flux (flow) per unit area and unit time
of q,
is the generation of q per unit volume per unit time. Terms that generate
( > 0) or remove ( < 0) q are referred to as a "sources" and "sinks"
respectively.

In the case that q is a conserved quantity that cannot be created or destroyed (such
as energy), the continuity equation is:
because = 0.

This general equation may be used to derive any continuity equation, ranging from
as simple as the volume continuity equation to as complicated as the NavierStokes
equations. This equation also generalizes the advection equation.

Note the flux f should represent some flow or transport, which has dimensions
[quantity][T]
1
[L]
2
, where [quantity]/[L]
3
is the dimension of .

Other equations in physics, such as Gauss's law of the electric field and Gauss's law
for gravity, have a similar mathematical form to the continuity equation, but are not
usually called by the term "continuity equation", because f in those cases does not
represent the flow of a real physical quantity.

2. Integral form:

By the divergence theorem, the continuity equation can be rewritten in an
equivalent way, called the "integral form":

Where
S is a closed surface that encloses a volume V. S is arbitrary but fixed
(unchanging in time) for the calculation,
denotes a surface integral, where n^ is the outward-pointing unit
normal to the surface S,

N.B: are equivalent notations for the surface integral,
because

denotes a volume integral over V. The notation is used
here since V must be closed.

is the total amount of in the volume V;

is the total generation (negative in the case of removal) per unit
time by the sources and sinks in the volume V,

In a simple example, V could be a building, and q could be the number of people in
the building. The surface S would consist of the walls, doors, roof, and foundation of
the building. Then the continuity equation states that the number of people in the
building increases when people enter the building (an inward flux through the
surface), decreases when people exit the building (an outward flux through the
surface), increases when someone in the building gives birth (a "source" where >
0), and decreases when someone in the building dies (a "sink" where < 0).

Note the flux f emerging normal from/to the local surface dS satisfies


Derivation of Differential form:
Suppose first an amount of quantity q is contained in a region of volume V. This is equal to the
amount in already in V, plus the generated amount s (total - not per unit time or volume):

The rate of change of q leaving the region is simply the time derivative:

where the minus sign has been inserted since the amount of q is decreasing in the region.
Partial derivatives are used since they enter the integrand, which is not only a function of time,
but also space due to the density nature of - differentiation needs only to be with respect to t.
The rate of change of q crossing the boundary and leaving the region can be formulated as
follows.
When a velocity field u can be applied to the movement of the quantity, such as a velocity
field of dynamic mass or charge, we have:

However there are cases where it makes no sense to do so, such as the flow of energy or
probability. In this case, a flux or current field f has to represent the flow:

In the cases u can be applied, then f can always be applied by the relation:

Using the divergence theorem on the right-hand side:

Equating these expressions leads to an identity of volume integrals,

this is only true if the integrands are equal, which directly leads to the differential continuity
equation:

Either form may be useful and quoted, both can appear in hydrodynamics and
electromagnetism, but for quantum mechanics and energy conservation, only the first may be
used. Therefore the first is more general.
Equivalence to the integral form
Starting from the differential form which is for unit volume, multiplying throughout by the
infinitesimal volume element dV and integrating over the region gives the total amounts
quantities in the volume of the region (per unit time):

V is constant in shape for the calculation, so it is independent of time and the time derivatives
can be freely moved out of the first integral on the left side,

where ordinary derivatives replace partial derivatives since the integral becomes a function of
time only (the integral is evaluated over the region - so the spatial variables become removed
from the final expression and t remains the only variable). Now using the divergence theorem
for the second integral on the left side:

The right side becomes:

Substituting these, we obtain the integral form:



Applications of Continuity
The Continuity Equation finds a lot of adaptations in Engineering Physics.
The continuity equation may be used to as an alternative method to derive certain equations
based on fundamental laws or theorems.
As a corollary to the theorems, the continuity equation itself can be derived from the statement
of these theorems.
1. Electromagnetism
This may be interpreted as Conservation of Charge-
In physics, charge conservation is the principle that electric charge can neither be
created nor destroyed. The net quantity of electric charge, the amount of positive charge
minus the amount of negative charge in the universe, is always conserved. Charge
conservation is a physical law that states that the change in the amount of electric
charge in any volume of space is exactly equal to the amount of charge flowing into the
volume minus the amount of charge flowing out of the volume.
In electromagnetic theory, the continuity equation can either be regarded as an
empirical law expressing (local) charge conservation, or can be derived as a
consequence of two of Maxwell's equations. It states that the divergence of the current
density J (in amperes per square meter) is equal to the negative rate of change of the
charge density (in coulombs per cubic metre),

Interpretation: Current is the movement of charge. The continuity equation says that if
charge is moving out of a differential volume (i.e. divergence of current density is
positive) then the amount of charge within that volume is going to decrease, so the rate
of change of charge density is negative. Therefore the continuity equation amounts to a
conservation of charge.

2. Fluid Dynamics
In fluid dynamics, the continuity equation states that, in any steady state process, the
rate at which mass enters a system is equal to the rate at which mass leaves the system.
In fluid dynamics, the continuity equation is analogous to Kirchhoff's current law in
electric circuits.
The differential form of the continuity equation is:

where
is fluid density,
t is time,
u is the flow velocity vector field.

If is a constant, as in the case of incompressible flow, the mass continuity equation
simplifies to a volume continuity equation:

which means that the divergence of velocity field is zero everywhere. Physically, this is
equivalent to saying that the local volume dilation rate is zero.

Another area of application is analogous to Bernoullis Theorem of Streamlined flow.
generation of lift by a wing
Venturi Tubes/Pump
Carburetors, cylinders
Non-contact adhesive force between surface

3. Thermodynamics (Energy):

By conservation of energy, which can only be transferred and not created or destroyed
leads to a continuity equation, an alternative mathematical statement of energy
conservation to the thermodynamic laws.
We can write the Continuity Equation in terms of Energy density and energy flux as:

By Fourier's law for a uniformly conducting medium,
where k is the thermal conductivity



4. Quantum Mechanics

In quantum mechanics, the conservation of probability also yields a continuity
equation. The terms in the equation require these definitions, and are slightly less
obvious than the other forms of volume densities, currents, current densities etc., so they
are outlined here:
The wavefunction for a single particle in the position-time space (rather than
momentum space) - i.e. functions of position r and time t, = (r, t) = (x, y, z, t).
The probability density function = (r, t) is:

The probability that a measurement of the particle's position will yield a value
within V at t, denoted by P = Pr V(t), is:

The probability current (aka probability flux) j:

With these definitions the continuity equation reads:

Either form is usually quoted. Intuitively; considering the above quantities this
represents the flow of probability. The chance of finding the particle at some r t flows like a
fluid, the particle itself does not flow deterministically in the same vector field.
The Continuity Equation may also be derived from Schrdinger's wave equation:
For a particle with max potential V, 1D time independent equation is

By taking complex conjugate, partially differentiating and applying Laplacian operator, we
arrive at:
which is the Continuity Equation
Acknowledgements

We would like to start by thanking the Department of Mathematics for providing us
with this platform where we learn and share on various topics.
We express our gratitude to our Professor T N Somasundara who gave us the liberty to
choose the topic of our interest for the seminar.




References / Bibliography:

The information presented in this seminar was sourced from Wikipedia:
www.en.wikipedia.org/Continuity_equation

Other references:
www.princeton.edu/asmit/continuity
www.physicsforum.com/engineering_mathematics

The search for these websites was run on Google





Group members contribution
Kushal S Derivation in Differential and Integral form
Pratheek Manjunath- Applications in Thermodynamics and Fluid dynamics
Suraj S Kattige- Applications in Electromagnetism and Quantum Mechanics