UNI VERSI TY OF MAURI TI US

FACULTY OF ENGI NEERI NG

SECOND SEMESTER/YEARLY EXAMI NATI ONS

MAY 2011

PROGRAMME BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering
MODULE NAME Numerical Methods and Statistics
DATE Tuesday
10 May 2011
MODULE CODE CI VE 2001Y(3)
TIME 13:30 16:30 Hrs DURATION 3 hours
NO. OF
QUESTIONS SET
6 NO. OF QUESTIONS
TO BE ATTEMPTED
5

I NSTRUCTI ONS TO CANDI DATES

Answer Question 1 which is Compulsory and any other Four (4) questions.

Answer Five (5) questions in all.

List of Formulas and Statistical Tables are attached.













Page 1 of 3


NUMERI CAL METHODS AND STATI STI CS CI VE 2001Y(3)

Question 1 [COMPULSORY]

(a) The tabl e bel ow gi ves n = 10 pai red measurements of effl uent BOD5 and COD.
Interpret the data usi ng correlati on.

COD
(mg/ L)
9.7 8.8 8.6 6.3 9.7 15.4 7.6 8.1 7.8 11.1
BOD5 5.0 6.1 5.5 4.2 4.3 4.0 4.4 5.9 3.5 5.4
[8 marks]

(b) Water sampl es are coll ected from a resi dential area that i s served by ei ther the
ci ty water suppl y or by pri vate wel l s. The sampl es are analysed for thei r
mercury concentrations in g/L. The data recorded are as foll ows.


Ci ty Water Suppl y
Sample Size Mean Variance
13 0.157 0.0071
Pri vate Wel l s 10 0.151 0.0076

Conduct the appropriate hypothesi s testi ng to determi ne i f the mercury
concentrations are di fferent i n the two suppli es. [12 marks]

Question 2

(a) A flat plate of mass m fall i ng freely i n ai r wi th a Vel oci ty V i s subject to a
downward gravi tati onal force and an upward fri ctional drag force due to air.
The drag force fd i s gi ven by the expression

( )
V 02 . 0
V ln 500
V 3 . 0
3
2

+
=
d
f

Termi nal Vel oci ty i s reached when the drag force equal s the gravi tational force

f = fd mg = 0

Fi nd the termi nal veloci ty usi ng the bi secti on method i f m = 1 kg and g = 9.81
m/ s
2
. Use an i ni ti al i nterval of v = 0 to 200m/ s. Show your work for computi ng
the fi rst 3 i terations of the bi secti on method. [8 marks]

(b) In the turbul ent fl ow of fl uid i n a smooth pi pe, the fri ctional force on the fl uid i s
represented i n terms of a fri cti on factor f, which i s posi ti ve and l ess than 0.1. The
equati on for f i s ( ) 8 . 0 Re log 2
1
10
= f
f
, where Re i s a constant, call ed the
Reynol ds number, whi ch vari es wi th the flui d properti es, fl ow rate and pi pe
diameter. Use the Newton Raphson method to obtai n an approxi mate val ue for
the fri cti on factor (f) if the Re = 10
4
. Show your computations for the fi rst 3
i terati ons of the Newtons method. [12 marks]



Page 2 of 3


NUMERI CAL METHODS AND STATI STI CS CI VE 2001Y(3)

Question 3

The data descri bi ng the storage vol ume to surface area relationshi ps for a parti cular
reservoir i s gi ven i n the foll owi ng tabl e:

Storage Vol ume (km
3
) 19.5 14.19 9.71 5.92 3
Surface Area (x10
6
m
2
) 204 241.6 207.4 168.8 124.5

Wri te the pol ynomial i n Lagrange form that passes through the poi nts, then use i t to
esti mate the val ue of the surface area when the storage vol ume i s 11.0 km
3
.
[20 marks]



Question 4

Suppose you are planni ng to use a l arge parabol i c arch wi th a shape given by:

y = 0.1x(30 x)

where y i s the hei ght above the ground and x i s i n metres.

Cal culate the total l ength of the arch by usi ng Si mpson s rul e. Di vi de the domai n from
x = 0 to x = 30m i nto 10 equal ly spaced i nterval s. The total l ength of the arch i s given
by

L = dx
dx
dy
2
30
0
1
}
|
.
|

\
|
+
[20 marks]

Ai de Mmoire:
Si mpsons
3
1
rul e: I(f) =
3
h
( ) ( ) | | ( ) ) ( 2 4
1
7 , 5 , 3
6 , 4 , 2
b f x f x f a f
N
j
i i
N
i
+ + +


=
=

Si mpsons
8
3
rul e: I(f) =
8
3h
( ) ( ) | | | | ( ) ) ( 2 1 ( 3
2
10 , 7 , 4
1
8 , 5 , 2
b f x f x f x f a f
N
j
i i i
N
i
+ + + + +


=

=





Page 3 of 3


NUMERI CAL METHODS AND STATI STI CS CI VE 2001Y(3)

Question 5

Consi der the fol lowi ng fi rst order ODE

2
2 x y
dx
dy
= from x = 1 to x = 2.8 wi th y(1) = 2.

Solve wi th the classi cal fourth order Runge Kutta method usi ng h = 0.6.

Compare the resul ts wi th the exact (Anal yti cal Sol ution)

4
1
4
3
2
1
2
1
2 2 2
+ + + =
x
e x x y

Aide Mmoire:
yi +1 = yi +
6
1
(k1 + 2k2 + 2k3 + k4)h
k1= f(xi ,yi )
k2 = f(xi + h, yi + k1h)
k3 = f(xi + h, yi + k2h)
k4 = f(xi + h, yi + k3h)

[20 marks]

Question 6

Usi ng l east squares regressi on, fi t a parabola (second order pol ymonial) to the
fol lowi ng data:

x 1 2 2.5 4 6 8 8.5
y 0.4 0.7 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.3 1.4


(a) Wri te the equation for your parabol a, stati ng the unknown coeffi ci ents
[2 marks]

(b) Wri te the set equations needed to compute the unknown coeffi ci ents usi ng the
l east squares method [8 marks]

(c) Solve for the coeffi ci ents usi ng Gauss El i mi nati on [10 marks]



END OF QUESTI ON PAPER

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