2D Versus 1D Models for Shallow Water Equations

In this paper we present a general framework to construct 1D width averaged models when the flow is constrained -e.g. by topography- to be almost 1D. We start from two dimensional shallow water equations, perform an asymptotic expansion of the fluid elevation and velocity field in the spirit of wave diffusive equations and establish a set of 1D equations made of a mass, momentum and energy equations which are close to the one usually used in hydraulic engineering. We show that in some special cases, like the U-shaped river bed, that our set of equations reduces to the classical 1d shallow water equations. Out of these configurations, there is an O (1) deviation of our model from the classical one.