1 The coupled system.

1.1 Model.

In this work we consider the following system of partial differential

equations :

δ


 (ξ − z) + ∇ · [(ξ + H − z) u] = 0 (1.1)
δt



δ




 [(ξ + H − z) u] + ∇ · [(ξ + H − z) u ⊗ u]
δt



+ g (ξ + H − z) · ∇(ξ + H − z) + g (ξ + H − z) ∇ z (1)
+ f (ξ + H − z) u⊥ + k u = 0 (1.2)





 " #
|u|2 − uc u

δz α

= 0 (1.3)

+ ∇ · χ(DGρ )( − λ∇z)


δt 1−p c2 |u|



Where (see Figure ) :

• t and x = (x1 , x2 ) are respectively the time variable and the 2-dimensional space variable.

• The function ξ(t, x) stands for the free surface of the water.

• H is constant that determine the mean height of the water.

• z(t, x) is the height or the depth of the sand by considering the level y = −H.

• h(t, x) is the water height from the free surface of the water to the surface of the dunes
of sand. So h = ξ + H − z ⇒ h − H = ξ − z.

• We denote by m = h − H = ξ − z to stands for the height variation.

• u(t, x) = (u1 , u2 ) is the velocity of the water and u⊥ (t, x) = (−u2 , u1 ).

• The tensor product  

u21 u1 u2
u⊗u= 
u2 u1 u22

The system of these two equations(1.1)-(1.2) is the shallow water equation. With the gravity
g, the Coriolis term f and the friction coefficient k. The shallow water equations (SWE) are
derived from the Navier-Stokes equations, which describes the motion of Newtonian fluids.
The SWE models the evolution of the ocean and other incompressible fluids in the underlying
assumption that the depth is small compared to the wave length of the fluid. This mean that
the shallow water equations are the simplest form of the motion equations that can be used

1
to describe the horizontal evolution of an incompressible fluid in response to gravitational and
rotational accelerattions.
The equation(1.3) is a transport equation based on [6],[18] and [9]. It model the dynamic
of dunes of sand. DG is the sand speck diametern ρ is the water density, α is a constant which
order of magnitude is 100 , p ∈ [0, 1) is the sand porosity, λ is
the inverse value of maximum slope of the sediment surface when water velocity is 0, uc is the
threshold under which the water velocity does not make the sand move, C is a constant defined
by C = ln( 3D
12d
), d is the water height above the seabed (see [6]).
G 

 0 if σ < 0
And χ(σ) =
 σ 32 if σ ≥ 0
This equation is derived from aquations of dynamic of sediments which has been particula-
rized for the transport of sand.

1.2 Scaling.

The characteristics value we use for the scaling are the same as in [6]. So we use and adapt
them for the shallow water equation. And the subsection is organized as follows :

1. The characteristics : the interest is focused on :

• t the characteristic time.

• L the characteristic length.

• ξ characteristic of the free surface of the water.

• M characteristic of the height variation.

2. The new variables and functions are calculated as follows :

• t · t′ = t ; L · x′ = x.

• ξ · ξ ′ (t′ , x′ ) = ξ (tt′ , Lx′ ).

• z · z ′ (t′ , x′ ) = z (tt′ , Lx′ ).

• u · u′ (t′ , x′ ) = u (tt′ , Lx′ ).

• M · m′ (t′ , x′ ) = ξ (tt′ , Lx′ ) − z (tt′ , Lx′ ).

Let us point out that all above variables with the symbol prime(′ ) are dimensionless
variables.

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3. The derivatives are computed as follows :

• Space derivative : ∇′ z ′ (t′ , x′ ) = L

z
∇z (tt′ , Lx′ ).

• Time derivative : δ
δt′
z ′ (t′ , x′ ) = t δ
z δt
z (tt′ , Lx′ ).

4. Scaling of SWE. Let us consider the first equation in (1) :

δ
(ξ − z) + ∇ · [(ξ + H − z)] = 0.
δt

Then we have :

1 δ
(ξ · ξ ′ − z · z ′ ) + ∇ · [(ξ · ξ ′ + H − z · z ′ )u · u′ ] = 0
t δt′  
z δ ξ ′ ′ zu ′ ξ ′ H ′ ′
( ·ξ −z)+ ∇ · ( ·ξ + − ·z ) · u = 0
t δt′ z L z z

Simplifying by z
t
we have :

 
δ ξ ′ tu ′ ξ ′ H ′
′
( ξ −z)+ ′
∇ · ( ξ − z + )u = 0 (2)
δt′ z L z z

Let’s take now the second equation in (1) :

δ
[(ξ + H − z)u] + ∇ · [(ξ + H − z)u ⊗ u] + g(ξ + H − z) · ∇(ξ + H − z)+
δt (3)
⊥
g(ξ + H − z) ∇z + f (ξ + H − z)u = −ku

Using the same technique as for the first equation and simplifying by zu
t
we get :

   
δ ξ ′ ′ ′ H ′ tu ′ ξ ′ ′ H ′ ′
( ξ u − z + )u + ∇ · ( ξ − z + )u ⊗ u +
δt′ z z L z z
tz ξ ′ H ξ H tz ξ ′ H (4)
g ( ξ − z ′ + ) ∇′ ( ξ ′ − z ′ + ) + g ( ξ − z ′ + ) ∇′ z ′ +
Lu z z z z Lu z z
′ ξ H tk
f t f ( ξ ′ − z ′ + ) u′⊥ = − k ′ u′
z z z

Thanks to the notation we have done previously, we get :

1 1 1 1 z ξ ′
m′ = m= (h − H) = (ξ − z) = (ξξ ′ − zz ′ ) = ( ξ − z′)
M M M M M z (1)
z ξ ′ ξ M ′
⇒ m′ = ( ξ − z′) ⇒ ξ′ − z′ = m
M z z z

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 So replacing in (2) and (4), simplifying by M
z
and dropping the (′ ) we get :


δm tu H

 + ∇ · [(m + ) u] =0
δt



  L  M  
δ H tu H


∇ · (m + ) u ⊗ u +


 (m + ) u +
 δt M L M
(5)
 tM H H tz H
g (m + ) ∇ (m + ) + g (m + ) ∇ z+






 Lu M M Lu M
 H tk
f t f (m + )u⊥ = − k u



M M

5. Scaling of LTDD. Since we use the scaling in the paper [6], the equation for small sand
specks is given by :

δz λ t u3 (ρDG )3/2 M 2 u2c

− α ∇ · [(1 − 3 m) χ(|u| − 2 )∇z]
δt 1 − p (ln( 4H ))3 L2 4H
H ln( D ) u
DG
(6)
G

3
1 t u (ρDG )3/2 M 2 u2c u
= α 4H 3
∇ · [(1 − 3 4H
m) χ(|u| − 2) ],
1 − p (ln( D )) L z H ln( DG
) u |u|
G

For more details on the computations, see Faye et al [6] and references therein. Finally
the dimensionless coupled system of SWE and LTDD is summed up by :

δm t u H
+ ∇ · [(m + ) u] =0



δt
 L M



   

 δ H tu H

 (m + )u + ∇ · (m + )u ⊗ u +
δt



 M L M

tM H H tz H


g (m + ) ∇(m + ) + g (m + )∇z+



Lu M M Lu M


H tk

 f t f (m + ) u⊥ = − ku



 M M
δz λα t u3 (ρDG )3/2 M u2c

 2
− ∇ · [(1 − 3 m) χ(|u| − )∇z]


δz 1 − p (ln( 4H ))3 L2 4H
u2


 H ln( D )
DG G



 3

 α t u (ρDG )3/2 M 2 u2c u
− ∇ · [(1 − 3 m) χ(|u| − 2) ] =0


4H 3 4H
1 − p (ln( D |u|

 )) L z H ln( DG
) u
G
(7)

1.3 Parameter size.

In this subsection as for the scaling we use the same size of parameters for LTDD equation
as in [6].

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So we set :
λ 1
u = 1m/s, H = 50m, M = 5m and = 1 and =2
1−p 1−p
1
t ∼ 16years ∼ 5 · 109 s, ∼ 1 month ∼ 2.6 · 106 s
ωc
DG = 7 · 10−5 , z = 1m, L = 10m, uc = 0m/s

Let’s define ϵ = 1
t ωc
∼ 1
192
; Then we are able to compute all the constants in the system
SWE-LTDD :
H 50 tu 5 · 109 1
= = 10, = = 5 · 108 ∼ ϵ−4 ,
M 5 L 10 3
tM t u gM 1 16
g = · 2 ∼ 4 · 9.8 · 5 ∼ 4 ,
Lu L u 3ϵ ϵ
tz t u gz 1 10
g = · 2 ∼ 4 · 9.8 · 1 ∼ 4 ,
Lu L u 3ϵ 3ϵ
1
f = ω c = 3.8 · 10−7 /s ⇒ f t =
ϵ
kt 1
k = M ω c = 19.10−7 ∼ 2.10−6 /s ⇒ = ωc t = .
M ϵ
Now the system SWE-LTDD becomes :

δm 1


 + 4 ∇ · [(m + 10)u] = 0
δt 3ϵ (8)
δ
[()]


δt