What is Deneb Aero

Deneb Aero is an aerodynamic analysis and flight simulation application for unmanned aircraft. It is intended for designers of fixed-wing, VTOL (quadplane) and multirotor aircraft who have a CAD model and want to know how the aircraft will fly before it is built or flown.

Deneb Aero does the following:

  • Reads a STEP or STL model of the aircraft, checks it and prepares it for meshing.

  • Plans and runs a set of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions, one for each attitude of the aircraft. Each solution is a steady, incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) solution computed with OpenFOAM.

  • Derives the lift curve, the drag polar, the pitching moment, the static margin, the sideslip and control derivatives, the rate damping and the effect of the propellers.

  • Works out the performance of the aircraft: stall speed, best range and best endurance speeds, power required, flight time and range on a battery, and the ceiling.

  • Shows the flow around the aircraft in 3D: particles, streamlines, smoke, slices and surface values such as pressure and skin friction.

  • Builds a flight model with an ArduPilot parameter set, which can be flown in the built-in flight simulator or downloaded as a Gazebo package.

  • Writes an engineering report with every figure, the method and its limits.

What Deneb Aero is not

Deneb Aero is not a CAD program. The geometry is created in your own CAD system and exported as STEP or STL. Deneb Aero does not change the shape of the aircraft.

The results are numerical estimates. Steady RANS solutions are reliable for attached flow at moderate angles of attack. Near and past the stall they are less reliable, and Deneb Aero marks such values in the results. See Limitations.

The flight model is a simulation model. It is not a qualified flight model, and the autopilot gains it proposes are starting values that must be checked on the real aircraft.

Main parts of the application

Part

Purpose

Studio

The user interface, opened in a web browser. It contains your projects, the New analysis wizard, the results and the account settings.

Simulation service

The program that runs on your computer. It meshes the aircraft, runs OpenFOAM and keeps the results. It is installed with the Deneb Aero application.

Flight simulator

Gazebo and ArduPilot SITL, started by the simulation service. The cockpit is shown in the browser.

Deneb account

Your sign-in, your plan and the records of your projects, kept on aero.deneb-systems.com.