🔍 Key Concepts

• Bunkering system layout – multiple tanks supplied from a common fill line • Conservation of flow – what happens to total flow if the pump/shore supply keeps delivering the same volume per minute? • Parallel branches in a piping system – how flow divides between open paths

💭 Think About

• Imagine the shore or ship’s pump is delivering a steady number of gallons per minute. If that total flow stays about the same, how is it shared between several open tanks? • When you close one tank’s valve on a common fill line, do you now have more, fewer, or the same number of flow paths available for the incoming fuel? What does that do to the flow into each remaining open tank? • Think of water flowing through a garden hose that splits into several hoses. If you clamp one branch completely shut, what happens in the other branches if the supply pressure and pump don’t change much?

✅ Before You Answer

• Assume the total supply rate from shore/ship remains approximately constant during the evolution • Confirm that the tanks are being filled from the same common line, not from separate, independent pumps • Remember you are being asked about the flow rate to the other open tanks, not the overall system including the closed tank