Glossary

Actuator disk: A model of a propeller as a thin disk that adds momentum to the air, without resolving the blades.
ArduPilot: Open-source autopilot. The flight simulator runs ArduPlane or ArduCopter as SITL.
CFD: Computational fluid dynamics: the numerical solution of the equations of the flow.
CG: Centre of gravity. The moments of the analysis are taken about it.
CLmax: The highest lift coefficient of the polar.
Control baseline: The neutral run on the control mesh, from which control increments are measured.
Draft: A project whose New analysis wizard is not finished.
Flight model: The aerodynamic tables, mass, motors and autopilot parameters with which the aircraft is flown in the simulator.
Gazebo: Open-source robot simulator used to fly the aircraft.
Lift peak: The angle of attack of CLmax.
MAC: Mean aerodynamic chord, the reference length c.
Neutral point: The CG position at which the aircraft would be neutrally stable in pitch.
OpenFOAM: Open-source CFD software used as the solver.
Package: The set of runs chosen in the Package step: Quick look, Performance, Full flight model, Multirotor or Custom.
Polar: The runs over a range of angles of attack, and the curves of lift, drag and moment they give.
Project: One airframe: its geometry, flight conditions and every solver run of its analysis.
QuadPlane: ArduPilot’s name for a fixed-wing aircraft with lift rotors for vertical take-off and landing.
RANS: Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations, solved with a turbulence model.
Run: One CFD solution of the aircraft at one attitude and configuration.
Simulation service: The program installed with Deneb Aero that meshes, solves and stores runs, and starts the flight simulator.
SITL: Software in the loop: the autopilot’s own code running against a simulated aircraft.
SST: The k-ω Shear Stress Transport turbulence model.
SST-LM: SST with the γ–Reθ (Langtry–Menter) transition model, which resolves laminar flow and its transition to turbulence.
Static margin: The distance from the CG to the neutral point, in percent of the MAC. Positive is stable.
Studio: The user interface of Deneb Aero, opened in a browser.
URANS: Unsteady RANS: the flow solved in physical time.
Wall functions: A model of the flow next to the wall, which allows a coarser mesh there.
y⁺: The non-dimensional distance of the first mesh cell from the wall.
α: Angle of attack: the angle between the wind and the aircraft’s reference line, in the vertical plane.
β: Sideslip angle: the angle between the wind and the aircraft’s plane of symmetry.