In order to further improve the construction efficiency and fully utilize the construction capacity of the trailing suction hopper dredger, taking the maximum production during the trailing process of the trailing suction hopper dredger as the optimization goal, the pump cavitation margin and the pipeline critical velocity as the restrictions, and the flow rate that is most well-known and easily controlled by the dredge operators as the optimization variable, this paper establishes a calculation model for the flow corresponding to the maximum production of the trailing suction hopper dredger in trailing process (called the optimal flow rate) in order to aim at expanding dredger trailing optimization theory and operation methods.The optimized calculation results of the model and the actual production data are comparied and analyzed, and the results are in good agreement, indicating that the calculation results of the model are accurate and reliable.In addition, the variables required for model calculation are easy to collect, the optimization calculation results (control target, flow) are clear, and the dredger operators are familiar with the flow control and manipulation.Therefore, the model can not only provide reference for construction design and dredging operations, but also be easy to popularize and apply.