Perpustakaan Digital ITB

ROVs (Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle) are used to investigate underwater areas that are too deep for human to dive safely. An ROV that is currently being produced at PT Robomarine Indonesia (RMI) is the Tulamben ROV. This Class II ROV is an omnidirectional ROV, meaning it can move to any direction freely. The analysis was carried out by creating three design variations based of the existing thruster duct, which were then simulated under identical flow conditions using SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation. Each simulation was conducted with a uniform inlet flow speed of 3 knots, and the resulting thrust and torque values were recorded for each design. The simulation results from this study show that changes in duct geometry significantly affect the thruster’s propulsive characteristics, as one of the three design variation outperforms the existing one, having as high as 14% increase in efficiency. That design was then identified as the most efficient configuration, having the optimal balance between thrust output and torque generated. From there, the effect of changes in duct shape and size of the ROV’s thruster was analyzed, where it was found that increasing the duct length contributes to an increase in thruster efficiency, whereas an increase in duct diameter leads to minor efficiency losses. Therefore, to optimize the thruster’s performance, its duct diameter should be maximized while minimizing the duct length.