Without settling, and . The left-running rarefaction wave has the unchanged Riemann invariant and similarity coordinate . Hence
Matching to the Froude number condition gives
The full outer profiles are for ; the displayed fan for ; and for , where
Ahead of there is only ambient fluid, so the particle-laden layer has zero depth. The shelf width is for every finite positive . It disappears only in the formal dry-front limit, where . For , the fan/shelf junction lies to the left of the initial barrier; the profiles remain consistent. This is the finite-Froude lock-release rarefaction, valid while the reservoir can be treated as semi-infinite.
Figure 1.
Lock-release depth and velocity profiles, with settling attenuation of the reservoir disturbance and approximate front
. Details.