Conservation of Mass

The Law of Conservation of Mass states that “mass can neither be created or destroyed”

The inflows, outflows and change in storage of mass in a system must be in balance.
The mass flow in and out of a control volume (through a physical or virtual boundary) can for an limited
increment of time be expressed as:

dM = (ρiviAidt )- (ρovoAodt)                            

where
dM = change of storage mass in the system (kg)
ρ = density (kg/m3)
v = speed (m/s)
A = area (m2)
dt = an increment of time (s)

*If the outflow is higher than the inflow - the change of mass dM is negative -
 the mass of the system decreases
*And obvious - the mass in a system increase if the inflow is higher than the outflow.

The Law of Mass Conservation is fundamental in fluid mechanics and a basis for the Equation of Continuity and
the Bernoulli Equation.

Example - Law of Mass Conservation

Water with density 1000 kg/m3 flows into a tank through a pipe with inside diameter 50 mm. The velocity of
the fluid in the pipe is 2 m/s. The water flows out of the tank through a pipe with inside diameter 30 mm with
a velocity of 2.5 m/s.
Solution:
Using equation (1) the change in the tank content after 20 minutes can calculated as:

dM = [(1000 kg/m3) (2 m/s) (3.14 (0.05 m)2  / 4) ((20 min) (60 s/min)]
   - [(1000 kg/m3) (2.5 m/s) (3.14 (0.03 m)2  / 4) ((20 min) (60 s/min)]
  = 2,591 kg

Reference:
(n.d.). Conservation Of Mass. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/conservation-mass-d_182.html