Let be the downward fluid suction speed and the downward particle settling velocity relative to that fluid. Set and . The carrier volume conservation and particle-volume balances per unit channel width are
The particle sink includes suction as well as relative settling: the particles follow the well-mixed withdrawn fluid, in addition to settling through it. Subtracting yields . Thus for , as long as ,
For the continuous limit is and . In particular suction alone does not change the well-mixed particle fraction: implies .
Withdrawn fluid carries its local horizontal momentum, so the momentum flux and hydrostatic pressure force obey
Expand this and use . The suction momentum terms cancel in the primitive acceleration equation, leaving
These are the governing equations for a particle-laden current with suction. Substituting and the concentration equation gives the convenient depth equation
The steady carrier flux is exhausted at the formal length when . Positive cannot continue beyond it. Near that limit a chosen depth branch, mixing or shallow-layer assumptions may fail, so this is the mass-budget extent, not a guarantee that every arbitrary inlet state has a regular shallow continuation to it. When , settling makes the driving reduced gravity exponentially small but does not remove carrier fluid; this ideal steady model has no finite mass-budget runout.