Solar Impulse

Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, and also the name of the project's two operational aircraft. The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist Bertrand Piccard, who co-piloted Breitling Orbiter 3, the first balloon to circle the world non-stop. The Solar Impulse project's goals were to make the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power and to bring attention to clean technologies. The aircraft is a single-seated monoplane powered by photovoltaic cells; it is capable of taking off under its own power. The prototype, often referred to as Solar Impulse 1, was designed to remain airborne up to 36 hours. It conducted its first test flight in December 2009. In July 2010, it flew an entire diurnal solar cycle, including nearly nine hours of night flying, in a 26-hour flight. Piccard and Borschberg completed successf

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SOLAR IMPULSE - Modélisation du moteur électrique à l’aide du logiciel COMSOL Multiphysics

Christian Berclaz

Le but de ce projet est de créer un modèle du moteur de SOLAR IMPULSE qui peut être résolu avec COMSOL. L’objectif final est de savoir concrètement ce que COMSOL peut nous apprendre sur les choix d’optimisation apportés à ce moteur. Nous avons notamment essayé de trouver les pertes dans les aimants. Malheureusement, l’approche multiphysique particulière qu’offre COMSOL n’a pas pu être abordée.

2006

Solar Impulse – Thermal simulation of the electronic circuit board

Laurie Saunders

The goal of this semester project is to create a thermal model of a electronic circuit board that will be used to control a Brushless DC motor for the project “Solar Impulse”. For this project, the finite element (FEM) software Ansys is used to build the model and to then apply the thermal loads. The software will calculate the temperature of the circuit board. The modeling using FEM is applied as it is not possible to make an analytical model for a complicated configuration like in this case.

2004

Solar Impulse - Modélisation de la ligne énergétique

Constantin Ginet

Le travail que je vais faire s’articulera en quatre phases fondamentales que l’on peut énoncer ainsi. • Etude de chaque élément un par un (depuis l’hélice jusqu’aux panneaux) et choix optimal du type d’élément basé sur des critères bien définis. • Enoncer des équations constitutives permettant de déterminer le poids, le rendement et les variations de ces deux données en fonction du dimensionnement et du régime de fonctionnement de chaque partie • Etablir un modèle global tenant compte des interactions entre les différentes parties de la chaîne et étant basé sur un cycle d’une journée. • Création d’un programme rendant compte d’un dimensionnement optimal et des pertes au cours du temps pour un profil donné et plusieurs organisations des composants. Celuici sera aussi capable de permettre une comparaison entre différent profils en terme énergétique

2004

PHYS-101(en): General physics : mechanics (English)

Students will learn the principles of mechanics to enable a better understanding of physical phenomena, such as the kinematics and dyamics of point masses and solid bodies. Students will acquire the capacity to quantitatively analyze these effects with the appropriate theoretical tools.

MSE-466: Wood structures, properties and uses

The presentation of tree growth and formation of wood anatomical structures, linked to the description of specific physical and mechanical properties, makes it possible to understand the different forms of utilisation of this material, including aspects of sustainable development.

CH-160(en): Advanced general chemistry (english)

This course aims to teach essential notions of the structure of matter, chemical equilibria and reactivity. Classes and exercises provide the means to analyze and solve, by reasoning and calculation, novel problems of geeneral chemistry.

Electric aircraft

An electric aircraft is an aircraft powered by electricity. Electric aircraft are seen as a way to reduce the environmental effects of aviation, providing zero emissions and quieter flights. Elec

Solar energy

Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

The École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL; English: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne; Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Lausanne) is a public research university in Laus