Study on the response characteristics of 3D tidal current field to the development of Caofeidian harbour project

Caofeidian harbour is the largest reclamation project to construct a deep water harbor in China. This construction began in 2003 and is still underway. So it has important meaning to study the changes of hydrodynamics at different construction stages in Caofeidian sea area. A 3D numerical flow model of Caofeidian is established based on Delft 3D. This model is validated with the field data. The validated model is used to simulate flow fields at four stages(no project, 2009 project, 2012 project and the expected project). On the basis of this verified model, the features of tidal current in Caofeidian sea area, the characteristics of tidal current velocities in different vertical levels and changes in tidal current fields with the development of the project are computed and analyzed. The results show that, after the completion of 2009 project, the tidal current velocities are larger by 10%–40% than that without project near Caofeidian foreland and smaller by 10%–20% in east foreland. The tidal current velocities also decrease by 60% at most near the approach jetty and in basins of Caofeidian harbor. However, with the further development of the project, the tidal current velocities further slightly decrease in Laolonggou deep trough, the first basin and the second basin of Caofeidian harbor, and change slightly in other areas.