For a dilute particle suspension, take as the downward speed relative to the carrier fluid. The particle deposition flux through a horizontal absorbing bed is , where is the near-bed particle volume fraction. Without stirring, settling can create a particle-free upper layer and a descending concentration front, so uniform concentration throughout the remaining fluid is not automatic. Weak turbulence can maintain a nearly uniform suspended concentration while leaving the mean settling velocity approximately equal to the isolated-particle value; this justifies using in a mixed-layer balance. Strong stirring can produce resuspension and requires a separate erosion model.
For a bed inclined at angle to the horizontal, the normal settling speed is , giving deposition flux per unit actual bed area. There is also downslope particle motion, and near-wall effects or resuspension can alter this simplest absorbing-boundary model. Integrating the normal projection over a sloping bed is equivalent to integrating over its horizontal projection.
The mixture mass density is , so its reduced gravity is
The Boussinesq approximation requires , in addition to the dilution assumption.