The Study of Ducted Propeller in Propulsion Performance of a Malaysia Fishing Boat

Through the installation of ducted propeller, fishing vessels are able to operate with more towing power and will be more economic in terms of fuel usage. The application of the shroud or ring to the propeller made the propeller more practical for tugs, pushboat, supply ship and trawler. The study of this paper is focused on the propulsive performance by ducted propeller when operating at tow speed and low rpm. From the research on the ducted propeller, the design characteristics such as length-diameter ratio and thicknesslength ratio are determine from the chart provided by previous researcher. The design selection of nozzle is done with the use of CFD program, Javafoil to analyze the flows of the profile and it's characteristic. Model tests were conducted by using a 26m fishing boat model with and without nozzle. It is foundthat by using ducted propeller to a fishing vessel, thrust can be increase up to 23%.