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Take $\Delta \rho >0$ and $\tau >0$, with $x$ pointing along the imposed shear stress, and put $G=\Delta \rho g$. Relative to the upper fluid's hydrostatic reference, the hydrostatic pressure in the current is $p=G(h-z)$. Thus the horizontal pressure gradient is $G\nabla h$. The lubrication theory momentum balance, lower no-slip boundary condition, and imposed upper shear stress giveIts depth-integrated volume flux isDefine $D=G/(3\mu )$ and $A=\tau /(2\mu )$. The continuity equation gives the shear-driven viscous gravity current equationThe two terms have opposite roles: imposed shear stress carries fluid downstream, whereas the hydrostatic pressure gradient spreads it from thick regions towards thin ones.

For the approximation, a representative horizontal velocity is $U\sim \tau H/\mu +G{H}^3/(\mu L)$, with vertical velocity $UH/L$. Small slopes require $H/L\ll 1$. Horizontal fluid inertia relative to vertical viscous resistance is ${\rho }_{c}U{H}^2/(\mu L)$, where ${\rho }_c=\rho +\Delta \rho$. Hence sufficient small parameters, expressed without an unknown velocity, areFor the hydrostatic pressure and normal-stress approximation also require $\mu U/(GHL)\ll 1$. Its gravity-driven part is already $(H/L{)}^2$; its shear-driven part addsThis condition controls viscous normal stress, vertical viscous corrections and the normal projection of shear at a slightly tilted interface relative to $GH$. With it and the previous inertia bounds, vertical inertia is small as well. Time variations here are on the transport timescale $L/U$; separately imposed rapid forcing would need its own unsteady inertia bound. A small ordinary Reynolds number is a stronger sufficient restriction, but the reduced inertia ratios above are what the thin-layer momentum balance directly requires.

In the steady far-downstream regime, cross-stream derivatives dominate gravity-driven spreading. Dropping the smaller downstream gravity flux leavesWrite $Y=y_N(x)$ and let $h_c$ be a typical central thickness. Balance gives $Y^2\sim (D/A)h_c^{2}x$, while conservation of the source volume flux gives $Q\sim A{h}_c^{2}Y$. Therefore the downstream similarity of a shear-driven gravity current hasThe omitted downstream gravity flux relative to the imposed shear flux is $D{h}_c^2/(Ax)\sim (Y/x{)}^2\ll 1$, so this approximation is self-consistent in the stated regime.

For the full profile put $w=h^2$. Then $h^3{h}_y=(w^2{)}_y/4$ andThis is a porous medium equation with downstream distance as its evolution coordinate. Conservation of $\int wdy=Q/A$ and a similarity solution $w=x^{-1/3}f(\eta )$, $\eta =y/x^{1/3}$, givewhere symmetry gives zero integration constant at $\eta =0$. Inside the positive region, $f^{\prime }=-2A\eta /(3D)$, so $f=(A/(3D))({\eta }_N^2-{\eta }^2)$. Requiring the total downstream volume flux to be $Q$ fixes the coefficient:Consequentlyfor $|y|<y_N$, with $h=0$ outside. The squared height is a parabolic Barenblatt solution; the height cross-section is a semicircular profile after rescaling its axes. The cross-stream volume flux vanishes at the edges even though the height slope becomes singular there. The profile describes the outer lubrication theory region, not a resolved microscopic front.

Near the point source the two horizontal dimensions are comparable, say $\ell$. Upstream spreading arrests where outward gravity-driven volume flux balances downstream shear-driven volume flux:Eliminating $h_{\ast }$ givesThis is a scaling estimate, not a determination of a numerical prefactor. The associated depth is $h_{\ast }\sim (\mu Q/(\Delta \rho g){)}^{1/4}$. The same horizontal scale is obtained by setting $y_N\sim x$ in the downstream similarity solution, confirming where that solution fails.

For the line source the steady volume flux per unit width is $q=A{h}^2-D{h}^3{h}_x$. On the downstream constant-height branch, $q=Q_{2d}$ gives $h_d^2=Q_{2d}/A$. Upstream there is no net flux through the finite nose, so $q=0$. Thus $h{h}_x=A/D$, and continuity of height at the source givesThe line-source upstream reach under imposed shear is thereforeIn the upstream part, shear-driven and gravity-driven volume fluxes cancel. The volume flux per unit width jumps by exactly $Q_{2d}$ at the source. As in the point-source profile, the square-root nose is a formal outer solution with an unresolved steep front; its finite upstream reach follows from flux balance, not from assuming a small slope all the way to the nose.