When modeling an engineering process, how is the right choice made between a simple but crude and a complex but accurate model? Is the complex model necessarily a better choice since it is more accurate?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The right choice between a crude and complex model is usually the simplest model which yields adequate results. Preparing very accurate but complex models is not necessarily a better choice since such models are not much use to an analyst if they are very difficult and time consuming to solve. At the minimum, the model should reflect the essential features of the physical problem it represents.