3D Numerical Modeling of Wind-Driven Flow in the High Salinity Aibi Lake

According to the hydrodynamic characteristics of high salinity lake, a three dimensional hydrodynamic numerical model is built to simulate the flow in Aibi Lake in northwest China. Selecting typical wind fields, to simulate the formation process of wind driven flow and 3D spatial distribution characteristics of hydrodynamic parameters. The study result shows that the formation process of wind driven flow can be divided into three stages: The flow direction is consistent with wind direction in the initial stage, the flow direction deviates from the wind direction in the transitional stage and the current ultimately forms a stable circulation in the last stage. When the flow field is on steady state, the flow direction in most of the zones are in consistent with the wind direction while there are several small scale circulations in central. The bottom current in central is opposite to that in surface, which shows compensation current character. Overall, the horizontal velocity from the surface to the bottom is decreasing. The water velocity near inshore is greater than that in center. The distribution characteristics of hydrodynamic parameters in high salinity lake are similar to that of fresh water. The water salinity has no effect on the structure of lake circulation.