A multi-compartment model is a type of mathematical model

Mathematical model

A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modeling. Mathematical models are used not only in the natural sciences and engineering disciplines A mathematical model is a...

 used for describing the way materials or energies are transmitted among the compartments of a system. Each compartment is assumed to be a homogenous entity within which the entities being modelled are equivalent. For instance, in a pharmacokinetic model, the compartments may represent different sections of a body within which the concentration of a drug is assumed to be uniformly equal.

Hence a multi-compartment model is a lumped parameters model.

Multi-compartment models are used in many fields including pharmacokinetics

Pharmacokinetics

Pharmacokinetics, sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to the determination of the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism...

, epidemiology

Compartmental models in epidemiology

In order to model the progress of an epidemic in a large population, comprising many different individuals in various fields, the population diversity must be reduced to a few key characteristics which are relevant to the infection under consideration...

, biomedicine

Biomedicine

Biomedicine is a branch of medical science that applies biological and other natural-science principles to clinical practice,. Biomedicine, i.e. medical research, involves the study of physiological processes with methods from biology, chemistry and physics. Approaches range from understanding...

, systems theory

Systems theory

Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels in all fields of research...

, complexity theory

Complex systems

Complex systems present problems in mathematical modelling.The equations from which complex system models are developed generally derive from statistical physics, information theory and non-linear dynamics, and represent organized but unpredictable behaviors of systems of nature that are considered...

, engineering, physics, information science and social science.