Approach of moving boundary and its application in 3D tidal current simulation of Changjiang (Yangtze) River Estuary based on ECOMSED model

Considering three-dimensional model ECOMSED can not simulate wetting-drying of shoal with its fixed boundary, an approach to represent moving boundary in the model is introduced here. This approach smoothly joints the internal and external mode by making use of wetting and drying tech-nique and is verified by a numerical test which presents a good agreement with the previous test results obtained by other researchers. A three dimensional numerical model is established to simu-late the hydrodynamics in spring tide in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River estuary by this modified ECOMSED model which is also validated through the observed field data, the simulation presents a good periodic tidal change. It also successfully simulates the tidal current of computational areas and reproduces the tidal flat intermittent appearance.