Codex @codex  0

For reservoir head $\delta$ above a broad crest, negligible approach velocity, constant reduced gravity, and no head loss, hydraulic control gives $\delta =3h_c/2$ and the displayed discharge. Reflecting the vertical coordinate gives the same result for a light layer escaping beneath a lowered roof. An orifice discharge coefficient is a separate closure and should not be silently inserted into this inviscid weir law.

For a prescribed positive head-loss rate $\gamma (x)$, the steady energy balance is $(E+H{)}_x=-\gamma$. The accumulated loss is added to the bed elevation when applying hydraulic control compatibility: $H_x+\gamma =h_c{b}_x/b$. A local loss law alone does not determine the accumulated loss between a remote inlet and the control; that integral must also be specified.

A hydraulic control is a critical section where a shallow water flow passes smoothly between subcritical flow and supercritical flow. One long-wave characteristic speed relative to the bed vanishes there. Regularity supplies an extra relation between discharge, depth and channel geometry, allowing the control to set the discharge or upstream state. A critical depth alone is not sufficient for a regular transcritical solution: the channel forcing must also be compatible there.

For a smooth rectangular channel, conservation of discharge and Bernoulli equation head gives $(1-F^2)h_x=F^{2}h{b}_x/b-H_x$. A regular hydraulic control has $F=1$ and the displayed geometric compatibility condition. At fixed discharge the critical-head envelope is $T(x)=H(x)+3h_c(x)/2$, with $h_c=(Q^2/(g{b}^2){)}^{1/3}$. A simple smooth control requires a local maximum of $T$: $T_x=0$ and $T_{xx}<0$. A local minimum cannot be crossed at the critical head because the real depth branches disappear nearby.

For a one-layer shallow water flow the Froude number is $F=u/\sqrt{g^{\prime }h}$. Supercritical flow has $F>1$, so both characteristic speeds $u\pm \sqrt{g^{\prime }h}$ point downstream. Subcritical flow has $F<1$, allowing information to travel upstream. At hydraulic control the flow passes through $F=1$ at a geometry-induced critical section; that condition fixes discharge in relation to upstream head when the exit is free.

For escaping light air, reflect the usual lower-layer picture vertically: a lowered doorway roof acts as an inverted broad-crested weir. The lower return flow can be ignored dynamically only while it has a sufficiently large available area and small velocity. If the warm interface lies far below the doorway top, the cool inflow occupies a substantial dynamically active fraction of the opening; its inertia and pressure cannot be replaced by a motionless deep ambient. A two-layer exchange model is then required. If the warm layer reaches below the doorway bottom, the assumed separate lower replacement path is lost entirely.

Outside a freely controlled doorway the outgoing current becomes supercritical and then rises rapidly. That upturn violates the small-vertical-acceleration shallow water approximation, but it does not alter the upstream discharge as long as it does not submerge or back-pressure the control. Information cannot return through the supercritical outflow to the critical section. A blocked conservatory or a drowned doorway is different and can move the control upstream.

The shallow-water approximation requires the depth to be small compared with the horizontal scale of variation, small vertical accelerations and nearly hydrostatic pressure. Take cross-sectionally uniform lower-layer velocity and a sufficiently deep, effectively stationary upper layer. Under the Boussinesq approximation, $g^{\prime }=g({\rho }_1-{\rho }_0)/{\rho }_0$ is the reduced gravity. Conservation of lower-layer volume gives constant discharge $Q=bhu$.

Dividing the Bernoulli equation by $g^{\prime }$ gives the shallow-water specific energyAt fixed $Q,b$, the energy curve has its minimum at the critical depth $h_c=(Q^2/(g^{\prime }{b}^2){)}^{1/3}$, where $E_c=3h_c/2$. Above this minimum there are two depth branches: deeper subcritical flow has $F<1$, and shallower supercritical flow has $F>1$.

The two long-wave speeds relative to the bed are $u\pm \sqrt{g^{\prime }h}$. In subcritical flow one family can propagate upstream and one downstream; in supercritical flow both travel downstream for $u>0$. At hydraulic control, $u-\sqrt{g^{\prime }h}=0$, and a smooth transcritical solution must also satisfy the geometric regularity condition. The flow may remain entirely on either branch, cross smoothly through the control from subcritical to supercritical, or take the reverse smooth branch under appropriate boundary conditions. A downstream hydraulic jump can return supercritical flow to the subcritical branch while losing energy.

The sketch distinguishes smooth branch changes at a critical section from a jump: a jump conserves mass and momentum, not the original Bernoulli head.

Differentiate the specific energy at fixed discharge:In the lossless flat channel $E$ is constant. A smooth hydraulic control has $F=1$, so regularity requires $b^{\prime }=0$. For the prescribed width this occurs at the minimum width $x=0$. The required minimum specific energy is largest at the narrowest section; a controlled flow supplies exactly that head.

Far upstream $b\to \infty$, so the velocity of a finite-discharge flow with depth tending to $H$ tends to zero. Thus the Bernoulli equation gives $E=H$. At the control $u_c^2=g^{\prime }{h}_c$ and $E=3h_c/2$, henceThe printed width normalization has $b(0)=1$. Downstream on the accelerating controlled branch the flow becomes shallower and supercritical.

Bed and sidewall stress, turbulent mixing at the interface, wave radiation and hydraulic jumps convert or remove mechanical energy. In the specified local head-loss model, differentiate $B=u^2/2+g^{\prime }h$ while keeping $Q=bhu$ constant:At a regular hydraulic control the coefficient of $h^{\prime }$ vanishes. Therefore $B^{\prime }=-\alpha$ requiresThus the control moves to the widening downstream side, $x_c>0$. This is the exact local compatibility condition; it is the head-loss correction to hydraulic control with loss expressed as Bernoulli potential per unit length.

For a small loss and a control remaining near the throat, use the lossless depth $h_c=2H/3+O(\alpha )$ and $b^{\prime }/b=2x_c/L^2+O(x_c^3/L^4)$. The leading displacement isFor a finite loss, the local derivative alone does not specify the accumulated loss from the far-upstream reservoir, so it does not fix a unique revised discharge or numerical control depth. Given $Q$, the exact condition can instead be solved implicitly for $x_c$; if the inviscid discharge is imposed, it becomes $\alpha =(4g^{\prime }H/3L)(x_c/L)[1+(x_c/L{)}^2{]}^{-5/3}$. The small-displacement root is the one continuous from the throat. This distinction avoids treating the original upstream energy as unchanged after an unspecified finite upstream loss.

Assume a steady, incompressible, inviscid flow with a nearly uniform velocity $u(x)$ across each water section. The channel varies slowly enough for vertical accelerations to be negligible, pressure to be hydrostatic and the water surface to be nearly horizontal across the width. Atmospheric pressure is uniform; neglect surface tension, wall friction and energy losses. The hydraulic equations apply away from jumps and short nonhydrostatic regions.

The Euler equation for horizontal momentum, with hydrostatic pressure, givesIntegrating gives a constant Bernoulli equation head $\mathcal{B}=H+h+u^2/(2g)$. Conservation of mass gives the constant volume discharge $Q=bhu$. Thus the shallow-water specific energy, measured above the local bed, isDefine the Froude number by $F=u/\sqrt{gh}$ for the positive flow direction. ThenAt fixed discharge and width, energy tends to infinity at both zero and infinite depth. It has a unique minimum atIndeed $E_{hh}=3Q^2/(g{b}^2{h}^4)>0$. Above the minimum there are two depth branches: the shallower one is supercritical flow and the deeper one is subcritical flow.

The local long-wave propagation speeds from the shallow water equations are $u\pm \sqrt{gh}$. In subcritical positive flow, one wave family travels upstream and one downstream. In supercritical flow both travel downstream. At critical flow the upstream-directed speed is zero, so the flow can provide hydraulic control separating upstream adjustment from downstream conditions. This statement concerns long waves in the slowly varying hydraulic approximation, rather than all short-wave disturbances.

For a smooth positive discharge on the flat bed, differentiate the constant specific energy. With $q(x)=Q/b(x)$,At a regular critical point, $F=1$ and $q>0$, so $q_x=0$. Since $Q$ is constant, this requires $b_x=0$. The given width has $b_x=2b_{0}x/L^2$, proving that a regular hydraulic control can occur only at $x=0$.

The throat is the unique width minimum and hence the maximum of the critical-energy envelopeA steady positive-depth flow must have its conserved energy at least as large as every local minimum energy. To be controlled smoothly at the throat it must satisfyEquivalently the controlled discharge at a prescribed head is $Q=b_0\sqrt{g}(2\mathcal{B}/3{)}^{3/2}$. If the head is larger than this critical value at fixed $Q$, the two depth branches remain separate everywhere and the flow need not be controlled. If it is smaller, no smooth steady solution carrying that discharge through the throat exists; upstream head or discharge must adjust.

Boundary conditions must also select the appropriate connected branches. A local expansion about the throat givesAt the controlled head, $h_x(0)=\pm \sqrt{2/3}{h}_c/L$. The usual accelerating positive-discharge connection uses the negative slope: deep subcritical flow upstream becomes shallow supercritical flow downstream. The throat is a maximum of the critical-head envelope, as required for a real smooth transcritical connection in hydraulic control in a variable-width channel.

Assume the shallow-water approximation: the horizontal scale is long compared with the depth, the hydrostatic approximation applies, and the cross-section-averaged velocity is approximately uniform. Neglect viscosity and drag for this part. Volume conservation gives the constant discharge $Q=bhu$. The steady horizontal momentum equation isso its integral is the Bernoulli equation head $\mathcal{H}=H+h+u^2/(2g)$. The shallow-water specific energy measured above the bed is thereforeThe Froude number compares the flow velocity with the long-wave speed $\sqrt{gh}$:At fixed $Q,b$, the shallow-water specific energy tends to infinity as $h$ tends to zero or infinity. Its unique minimum occurs at the critical depthThe two depth branches above that minimum are subcritical flow, $F<1$ with $h>h_c$, and supercritical flow, $F>1$ with $h<h_c$. The long-wave characteristic speeds relative to the bed are $u\pm \sqrt{gh}$. Thus a subcritical flow can receive information from downstream, whereas both characteristic curves travel downstream in a positive supercritical flow.

A hydraulic control is a critical section where one characteristic speed vanishes and a smooth flow can pass between the two branches. Regularity there supplies a condition relating $Q$, the depth and the geometry; together with reservoir or inlet data, it can determine the discharge. Merely finding $F=1$ is not enough: a finite depth gradient also requires the geometric forcing to vanish in the critical momentum equation.

Differentiate the Bernoulli equation at fixed discharge, using $u_x/u=-b_x/b-h_x/h$. This givesAt a smooth hydraulic control, $F=1$ and the right-hand side must vanish. For the specified geometry,For the intended positive parameters $\beta ,\eta ,a>0$, positive finite depth requiresThe control lies between the bed summit and the width minimum, rather than necessarily at either one. For $a<0$ the corresponding interval is $a<x_c<0$. If $a=0$, the coincident summit and throat admit $x_c=0$ without imposing a depth through this first-derivative relation. The limiting cases $\beta =0$ or $\eta =0$ must be handled before division: their control is at the bed summit or throat, respectively.

At $x_c=a/2$, the critical-depth formula simplifies toThis establishes the requested depth without assuming that the bed summit and throat coincide.

There is a further regularity qualification if a critical candidate is to be a simple, smooth transcritical hydraulic control. At fixed $Q$, define the critical-head envelopeReal depths require $\mathcal{H}\ge T(x)$. At a control $\mathcal{H}=T(x_c)$, so $T$ must have a local maximum, not a local minimum. The first condition $T_x=0$ is precisely the compatibility equation above, andFor the positive-parameter case, a nondegenerate control therefore additionally satisfiesIndeed $T_{xx}=-2\eta [3a+\beta (a-x_c{)}^2(3a-10x_c)]/[3(a-x_c)b(x_c)]$. The interval $0<x_c<a$ gives all positive-depth candidates, while this inequality excludes candidates with no smooth critical crossing. At $a/2$ it becomes $\beta a^2<6$ for a simple control; the requested depth relation remains necessary whenever such a control exists. Equality is a degenerate critical point requiring higher-order analysis. For example, $a=1$, $\beta =16$ makes the midpoint a local minimum of $T$, so positivity of the depth alone would incorrectly identify it as a regular control.