In words, the elapsed time is the ratio of the tank volume that is emptied to the average of
the discharges that occur at the beginning and end of the time period, a result that can aid
computations and is intuitively appealing. For this result to be valid, however, the cross-
sectional area and also the friction factor that is a part of C must remain constant
throughout the draining process.
If either of the foregoing restrictions does not hold, the integral in Eqs. 7.5 and 7.8 will
not simplify as it did in Eq. 7.8. For example, if the cylindrical tank is laid on its side,
then A(h) no longer is constant. It is then possible (but not very practical) to evaluate
the resulting expression as an elliptic integral (Byrd and Friedman, 1971), but it is
normally more convenient just to evaluate Eq. 7.5 by use of some numerical integration
procedure; the Trapezoidal rule or the more accurate Simpson's rule (Press et al., 1992) are
just two of many possibilities. Closed-form solutions are also known to exist for certain
area variations A(h) with a vertical centerline, specifically the cone, pyramid and parabo-
loid, but the form of these solutions is algebraically more complex and of limited utility.
The flow defined in Fig. 7.3 can be made more general by allowing a nonzero constant
inflow Qo at the top of the tank. We will again write the outflow from the pipe in the
form of Eq. 7.7. At first glance there appear to be two inflow cases, one with Qo > Q
and the water surface in the tank rises, and the other with Qo < Q and the water surface
falls. Such turns out not to be the case, for an individual consideration of each case leads
to the restatement of Eq. 7.4 for both possibilities as