The Shallow Water Equations

Clint Dawson and Christopher M. Mirabito

Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences
University of Texas at Austin
clint@ices.utexas.edu
September 29, 2008
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
The Shallow Water Equations (SWE)
What are they?
The SWE are a system of hyperbolic/parabolic PDEs governing uid
ow in the oceans (sometimes), coastal regions (usually), estuaries
(almost always), rivers and channels (almost always).
The general characteristic of shallow water ows is that the vertical
dimension is much smaller than the typical horizontal scale. In this
case we can average over the depth to get rid of the vertical
dimension.
The SWE can be used to predict tides, storm surge levels and
coastline changes from hurricanes, ocean currents, and to study
dredging feasibility.
SWE also arise in atmospheric ows and debris ows.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
The SWE (Cont.)
How do they arise?
The SWE are derived from the Navier-Stokes equations, which
describe the motion of uids.
The Navier-Stokes equations are themselves derived from the
equations for conservation of mass and linear momentum.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
SWE Derivation Procedure
There are 4 basic steps:
1
Derive the Navier-Stokes equations from the conservation laws.
2
Ensemble average the Navier-Stokes equations to account for the
turbulent nature of ocean ow. See [1, 3, 4] for details.
3
Specify boundary conditions for the Navier-Stokes equations for a
water column.
4
Use the BCs to integrate the Navier-Stokes equations over depth.
In our derivation, we follow the presentation given in [1] closely, but we
also use ideas in [2].
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
Conservation of Mass
Consider mass balance over a control volume . Then
d
dt
_

dV
. .
Time rate of change
of total mass in
=
_

(v) ndA
. .
Net mass ux across
boundary of
,
where
is the uid density (kg/m
3
),
v =
_
_
u
v
w
_
_
is the uid velocity (m/s), and
n is the outward unit normal vector on .
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
Conservation of Mass: Dierential Form
Applying Gausss Theorem gives
d
dt
_

dV =
_

(v) dV.
Assuming that is smooth, we can apply the Leibniz integral rule:
_

t
+ (v)
_
dV = 0.
Since is arbitrary,

t
+ (v) = 0
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
Conservation of Linear Momentum
Next, consider linear momentum balance over a control volume . Then
d
dt
_

v dV
. .
Time rate of
change of total
momentum in
=
_

(v)v ndA
. .
Net momentum ux
across boundary of
+
_

bdV
. .
Body forces
acting on
+
_

TndA
. .
External contact
forces acting
on
,
where
b is the body force density per unit mass acting on the uid (N/kg),
and
T is the Cauchy stress tensor (N/m
2
). See [5, 6] for more details
and an existence proof.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
Conservation of Linear Momentum: Dierential Form
Applying Gausss Theorem again (and rearranging) gives
d
dt
_

v dV +
_

(vv) dV
_

bdV
_

TdV = 0.
Assuming v is smooth, we apply the Leibniz integral rule again:
_

_

t
(v) + (vv) b T
_
dV = 0.
Since is arbitrary,

t
(v) + (vv) b T = 0
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
Conservation Laws: Dierential Form
Combining the dierential forms of the equations for conservation of
mass and linear momentum, we have:

t
+ (v) = 0

t
(v) + (vv) = b + T
To obtain the Navier-Stokes equations from these, we need to make some
assumptions about our uid (sea water), about the density , and about
the body forces b and stress tensor T.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
Sea water: Properties and Assumptions
It is incompressible. This means that does not depend on p. It
does not necessarily mean that is constant! In ocean modeling,
depends on the salinity and temperature of the sea water.
Salinity and temperature are assumed to be constant throughout our
domain, so we can just take as a constant. So we can simplify the
equations:
v = 0,

t
v + (vv) = b + T.
Sea water is a Newtonian uid. This aects the form of T.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
Body Forces and Stresses in the Momentum Equation
We know that gravity is one body force, so
b = g + b
others
,
where
g is the acceleration due to gravity (m/s
2
), and
b
others
are other body forces (e.g. the Coriolis force in rotating
reference frames) (N/kg). We will neglect for now.
For a Newtonian uid,
T = pI +

T
where p is the pressure (Pa) and

T is a matrix of stress terms.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
The Navier-Stokes Equations
So our nal form of the Navier-Stokes equations in 3D are:
v = 0,

t
v + (vv) = p + g +

T,
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
The Navier-Stokes Equations
Written out:
u
x
+
v
y
+
w
z
= 0
(1)
(u)
t
+
(u
2
)
x
+
(uv)
y
+
(uw)
z
=
(
xx
p)
x
+

xy
y
+

xz
z
(2)
(v)
t
+
(uv)
x
+
(v
2
)
y
+
(vw)
z
=

x
y
x
+
(
yy
p)
y
+

yz
z
(3)
(w)
t
+
(uw)
x
+
(vw)
y
+
(w
2
)
z
= g +

xz
x
+

yz
y
+
(
zz
p)
z
(4)
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
A Typical Water Column
= (t, x, y) is the elevation (m) of the free surface relative to the
geoid.
b = b(x, y) is the bathymetry (m), measured positive downward
from the geoid.
H = H(t, x, y) is the total depth (m) of the water column. Note
that H = + b.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
A Typical Bathymetric Prole
Bathymetry of the Atlantic Trench. Image courtesy USGS.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
Boundary Conditions
We have the following BCs:
1
At the bottom (z = b)
No slip: u = v = 0
No normal ow:
u
b
x
+ v
b
y
+ w = 0 (5)
Bottom shear stress:

bx
=
xx
b
x
+
xy
b
y
+
xz
(6)
where
bx
is specied bottom friction (similarly for y direction).
2
At the free surface (z = )
No relative normal ow:

t
+ u

x
+ v

y
w = 0 (7)
p = 0 (done in [2])
Surface shear stress:

sx
=
xx

x

xy

y
+
xz
(8)
where the surface stress (e.g. wind)
sx
is specied (similary for y
direction).
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
z-momentum Equation
Before we integrate over depth, we can examine the momentum equation
for vertical velocity. By a scaling argument, all of the terms except the
pressure derivative and the gravity term are small.
Then the z-momentum equation collapses to
p
z
= g
implying that
p = g( z).
This is the hydrostatic pressure distribution. Then
p
x
= g

x
(9)
with similar form for
p
y
.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
The 2D SWE: Continuity Equation
We now integrate the continuity equation v = 0 from z = b to
z = . Since both b and depend on t, x, and y, we apply the Leibniz
integral rule:
0 =
_

b
v dz
=
_

b
_
u
x
+
v
y
_
dz + w|
z=
w|
z=b
=

x
_

b
u dz +

y
_

b
v dz
_
u|
z=

x
+ u|
z=b
b
x
_

_
v|
z=

y
+ v|
z=b
b
y
_
+ w|
z=
w|
z=b
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
The Continuity Equation (Cont.)
Dening depth-averaged velocities as
u =
1
H
_

b
u dz, v =
1
H
_

b
v dz,
we can use our BCs to get rid of the boundary terms. So the
depth-averaged continuity equation is
H
t
+

x
(H u) +

y
(H v) = 0 (10)
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
LHS of the x- and y-Momentum Equations
If we integrate the left-hand side of the x-momentum equation over
depth, we get:
_

b
[

t
u +

x
u
2
+

y
(uv) +

z
(uw)] dz
=

t
(H u) +

x
(H u
2
) +

y
(H u v) +
_
Di. adv.
terms
_
(11)
The dierential advection terms account for the fact that the average of
the product of two functions is not the product of the averages.
We get a similar result for the left-hand side of the y-momentum
equation.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
RHS of x- and y-Momentum Equations
Integrating over depth gives us
_
gH

x
+
sx

bx
+

x
_

b

xx
+

y
_

b

xy
gH

y
+
sy

by
+

x
_

b

xy
+

y
_

b

yy
(12)
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
At long last. . .
Combining the depth-integrated continuity equation with the LHS and
RHS of the depth-integrated x- and y-momentum equations, the 2D
(nonlinear) SWE in conservative form are:
H
t
+

x
(H u) +

y
(H v) = 0

t
(H u) +

x
_
H u
2
_
+

y
(H u v) = gH

x
+
1

[
sx

bx
+ F
x
]

t
(H v) +

x
(H u v) +

y
_
H v
2
_
= gH

y
+
1

[
sy

by
+ F
y
]
The surface stress, bottom friction, and F
x
and F
y
must still determined
on a case-by-case basis.
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations
Introduction
Derivation of the SWE
Derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Boundary Conditions
References
C. B. Vreugdenhil: Numerical Methods for Shallow Water Flow,
Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1994)
E. J. Kubatko: Development, Implementation, and Verication of
hp-Discontinuous Galerkin Models for Shallow Water Hydrodynamics
and Transport, Ph.D. Dissertation (2005)
S. B. Pope: Turbulent Flows, Cambridge University Press (2000)
J. O. Hinze: Turbulence, 2
nd
ed., New York: McGraw-Hill (1975)
J. T. Oden: A Short Course on Nonlinear Continuum Mechanics,
Course Notes (2006)
R. L. Panton: Incompressible Flow, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley (2005)
C. Mirabito The Shallow Water Equations