Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2002 / iii / Paper 52 / 3 / a / Solution

Let $\ell$ and $\mathcal{T}$ denote longitudinal length and time scales, and let $U$ be a typical streamwise velocity. The shallow water approximation requires $h/\ell \ll 1$, slow changes in the channel geometry $h|B^{\prime }/B|\ll 1$, and small longitudinal slopes. The vertical velocity is then of order $Uh/\ell$; its acceleration must be small compared with the restoring acceleration, for example $Uh/(\mathcal{T}\ell )+U^{2}h/{\ell }^2\ll g^{\prime }$ in a reduced-gravity layer. The leading pressure is hydrostatic pressure, and cross-sectional horizontal velocity is approximated by $u(x,t)$. High Reynolds number permits negligible interior viscous terms but does not itself guarantee the geometric or hydrostatic assumptions. We also require $B>0$ and $h>0$ in the wetted interior. The dimensionless $B$ need not be small: it measures the cross-section's opening angle, while the smallness condition concerns streamwise variation.

The cross-sectional area and volume transport areFor an impermeable bed and no fluid entrainment, volume conservation givesor, equivalently,The geometrical source term expresses the depth change needed when a moving layer encounters a wider or narrower triangular section.