Analysis of number propeller blades on traditional boats 3 GT capacity with engine rotation speed variation

Abstract Limited range of fishing areas is one form of loss experienced by fishermen in Indonesia, especially fishermen who still use traditional boats 3 GT capacity. The driving component of one of the problems, one of which is a propeller. Propeller commonly used by fishermen still uses 3 blades propeller with less than maximum thrust distribution and fluid velocity. The purpose of this study is to optimize the number of propeller blades in traditional boats 3 GT capacity with variations in the number of propeller blades 2,3 and 4 and rotational speed of 700 RPM, 1200 RPM, 1700 RPM, and 2200 RPM. The method used to determine the amount of thrust and fluid velocity through CFD simulations. Flow simulation results show the maximum thrust obtained at 1700 RPM rotational and the maximum fluid velocity obtained at 2200 RPM with a pressure of 15.3Mpa and a fluid speed of 3340.16 m/s on a propeller of 2 blades. Whereas the minimum thrust force is obtained at 700 RPM rotational with pressure 0.21Mpa in propeller with 3 blades and the minimum fluid speed is obtained at 700 RPM rotational with a fluid speed 369.33 m/s on propeller with 4 blades.