A Numerical Simulation Of The Seasonal Variation Of Transport Of Suspended Particles In East China Sea

The seasonal variation of suspended particle concentration and transportation in the Bohai sea, the Yellow sea, and the East China sea were simulated by a three dimensional model in this research. The HAMSOM model, which was deployed by University of Hamburg in Germany, was applied to simulate tidal current and the SPM model was applied to simulate suspended particles transport. Our simulation has taken the influence of wind, air pressure, and rivers runoff into consideration, including the barotropic tidal currents, such as M2, K1, O1, N2, S2 and the currents induced by wind. The simulated current field could then be taken as a background to calculate the transportation and seasonal concentration of suspended particles and the resuspended of sediments. The results shows that the distribution of the suspended particles concentration and the transportation of suspended particles are mainly determined by sediment type and the tidal currents. The hydrodynamics due to water depth partly restricts the suspended particles concentration. A high concentration of suspended particles is kept all the year round at the southwest of the Laizhou Bay and the south of the Bohai Bay. The concentration of suspended particles near the abandoned Yellow River estuary is higher in winter due to strong wind. The suspended particles concentration near the Changjiang River estuary is high through the whole year, however, the value is larger in summer than in winter at the northeast of Changjiang River estuary, and the concentration of suspended particles along Jiangzhe coastline is higher in winter than in summer. The suspended particles from the Yellow River estuary will be influenced by the currents at the Bohai Strait, therefore, part of them can be transported along the north coastline of Shandong Province to the south of the Yellow Sea, part of them can be sedded at the southeast coastline of Shandong Penissula, and part of them will be sediment to the middle of Yellow Sea. The results show by the model was that the transportation rate reaches maximum in summer and minimum in winter. And the transportation of resuspended particles from the abandoned Yellow River estuary is mainly towards two directions: to the east or to the southeast along the coastline. For a comparison, the transportation of suspended particles from Changjiang River is mainly towards three directions: directly to the east, to the southeast or along the coastline, which varies with different seasons. For example, in winter, the amount of suspended and re-suspended particles is increased due to strong wind, which may hint that the suspended particles from Changjiang River and re-suspended particles from the seabed can reach to Okinawa Trough indeed.