Unified derivation of thin-layer reduced models for shallow free-surface gravity flows of viscous fluids

We propose a unified framework to derive thin-layer reduced models for some shallow free-surface flows driven by gravity. It applies to incompressible homogeneous fluids whose momentum evolves according to Navier–Stokes equations, with stress satisfying a rheology of viscous type (i.e. the standard Newtonian law with a constant viscosity, but also non-Newtonian laws generalized to purely viscous fluids and to viscoelastic fluids as well). For a given rheology, we derive various thin-layer reduced models for flows on a rugous topography slowly varying around an inclined plane. This is achieved thanks to a coherent simplification procedure, which is formal but based on a mathematically clear consistency requirement between scaling assumptions and the approximation errors in the differential equations. The various thin-layer reduced models are obtained depending on flow regime assumptions (either fast/inertial or slow/viscous). As far as we know, it is the first time that the various thin-layer reduced models investigated here are derived within the same mathematical framework. Furthermore, we obtain new reduced models in the case of viscoelastic non-Newtonian fluids, which extends Bouchut and Boyaval (2013).