Case Study: Solar Impulse achieves up to 5× faster analyses with PTC Mathcad (PTC)

Solar Impulse Performs Analyses Up to 5x Faster With PTC Mathcad

Solar Impulse, the Swiss long-range solar-powered aircraft project aiming to circumnavigate the globe using only solar energy, needed faster, more reliable calculations, easier setup of recurring analyses, and clearer, more efficient reporting. To address these challenges they adopted PTC Mathcad from vendor PTC for engineering calculations and documentation.

PTC provided Mathcad capabilities like unit checking, embedded formulas for Word, reusable templates, and tutorial parts to speed setup and validation. Using PTC Mathcad, material-property, load, and structural analyses now require less rework, recurring analyses are three to five times faster when templates are reused, and dragging and modifying predefined parts yields about a 30% time savings.

Solar Impulse

Geri Piller

Head of Structural Analysis