The invention discloses a beam scanning method for beam width through superposition design of a plurality of sub-beams. The beam scanning method comprises the following steps: when a base station broadcasts a pilot signal in a cell discovery stage, establishing an expression of cell search delay and the minimum number of scanning beams, and covering the whole area through K times of beam scanning;dividing NT array antennas into M sub-arrays by utilizing a one-dimensional uniform linear array, establishing a sub-array model, giving a total array response, analyzing a relationship between the number M of the sub-arrays and the minimum number K of scanning beams, and adjusting the direction of each sub-beam to realize flexible beam width scanning; and analyzing the relationship between the beamforming gain and the number of array antennas in the expected coverage area, and designing and optimizing the number K of beams with flexible widths to maximize the system capacity. According to the beam scanning method, the scanning number of the beams with the flexible width is optimized, and the expenditure of user discovery is reduced by designing the number of the beams with the optimal flexible width, and the system capacity is greatly improved, and the problem of a coverage gap between user discovery and data transmission is solved.