Investigations of Topographic Effect on Radial Current in South Yellow Sea

Large scaled projects are conducted in South Yellow Sea in recent years. Topographic effect and tidal current are key issues to the coastal engineering and the ocean engineering. In this study, field surveys were conducted to investigate the tidal level, current velocity, and current direction in South Yellow Sea. A numerical model was developed to simulate the radial current field based on the field data. To investigate the mechanism of the radial current field, the actual topography and a smoothed topography were applied in the numerical model, respectively. Results show that, the current field appeares radial because of the tidal system rather than the submarine topography. Local topography centralized the radiation centre and shifted the high-velocity zones. The actual topographic effect is proposed, and results show that local topography increases the flood tide velocity and decreases the ebb tide velocity. Lagrangian residual currents are calculated to illustrate possible sediment sources and transport routes.