Abstract: We consider a model developed by Savage and Hutter which describes the flow of granular avalanches down a smoothly varying slope. The system of two conservation laws for height and momentum of the avalanche resembles the shallow water equations.The existence of entropy solutions to this model is proved using the vanishing viscosity method. Existence can generally only be guaranteed for a finite time depending on the initial data and the curvature of the slope.
mailto:conservation@math.ntnu.no Last modified: Mon Dec 14 12:00:30 1998