In January 2010, the project is largely on schedule.

Much progress was made in the period around October 2009 when the 2^nd plenary meeting was held, attended by almost all participants. A large variety of subjects was discussed, eg. investigations on measurement quality  and tunnel effects. Generally speaking a good data quality was found. With regard to tunnel effects, it is well known that tunnel effects for the present open jet configuration will be much less severe than the effects in a closed tunnel section but on the other hand the shear layer between the tunnel and outer flow makes the determination of the remaining corrections more difficult, where the presence of the turbine wake adds to the complexity.  As such standard tunnel correction methods cannot be applied and detailed CFD analysis of the wind turbine and its wake with and without the tunnel geometry is required. First results from CFD analysis at design conditions indicate little tunnel disturbance [7] but the disturbances are expected to be more severe at high loading and yawed conditions.

Furthermore the measured rotating airfoil characteristics were presented in different ways using different angle of attack methods (or even without angle of attack methods) and the rotating characteristics were compared with 2D measurements. PIV measurements in the wake have been processed and analysed, see below and a comparison was made between the observations from NASA-Ames and Mexico experiment. Moreover the effects from airfoil imperfections were estimated, effects from Reynolds number and Mach number were discussed etc.

It is worthwhile mentioning that Kari even built a scaled down model of the Mexico rotor and measured the performance of it in their own wind tunnel in comparison to the performance of the ‘real’ Mexico turbine.

A first (limited) comparison has already been made between some calculational results and measurements. In particular the comparison with the flow field PIV measurements showed interesting results, because a comparison in this  degree of detail, could until now not been made yet. Typical examples of the comparison between calculated and measured results are shown below. Note that these are very preliminary results, which is the reason why the models have not been identified yet.

The main results which have been obtained until now are described in the references [1] to [9]. Note that more recent results will be published soon. As a matter of fact several oral presentations are planned for EWEC 2010 in April 2010 [10] and the EAWE  conference ‘The science of making torque from the wind’ which is held in June 2010 [11] to [17].

1. J. G. Schepers and H. Snel: ‘Model Experiments in Controlled Conditions, Final report’, ECN-E-07-042, Energy Research Center of the Netherlands, ECN, February 2007, http://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2007/e07042.pdf
2. H. Snel, J.G. Schepers, B. Montgomerie: ‘The MEXICO project (Model Experiments in Controlled Conditions): The database and first results of data processing and interpretation’, The Science of Making Torque from the Wind, 28–31 August 2007, Technical University of Denmark, http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/75/1/012014/pdf?ejredirect=iopsciencetrial
3. Kay, A. Investigating the Unsteady Aerodynamics associated with a horizontal axis wind turbine, with reference to the recent measurements gathered during the Mexico project. TU master project report
4. L. Pascal Analysis of Mexico measurements,  ECN-Wind Memo-09-010, January 2009
5. H. Snel, J.G. Schepers and A. Siccama, Mexico, the database and results of data processing and analysis 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences meeting, Orlando, USA, January 2009
6. A. Bechmann and N. Sørensen CFD simulation of the Mexico rotor wake, European Wind Energy Conference, March 2009, Marseille France
7. A.K. Kuczaj Virtual Blade Model Simulations of the Mexico experiment, NRG-12810/09.97106, NRG Petten, The Netherlands

8. Daniel Micallef, Menno Kloosterman, Carlos Ferreira, Tonio Sant , Gerard van Bussel Validating BEM, Direct and Inverse Free Wake Models with the MEXICO experiment, 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences meeting, Orlando, USA, January 2010

9. S Breton, C Sibuet, C Masson Using the Actuator Surface Method to Model the Three-Bladed MEXICO Wind Turbine 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences meeting, January 2010

10. J.G. Schepers, L. Pascal and H. Snel. First results from Mexnext: Analysis of detailed aerodynamic measurements on a 4.5 m diameter rotor placed in the large German Dutch Wind Tunnel DNW. To be presented at the European Wind Energy Conference, EWEC, April 2010, Warsaw Poland.

11. Wen Zhong Shen et al Validation of the Actuator Line / Navier Stokes technique using Mexico measurements, To be presented at 'The Science of Making Torque from the Wind', June 2010

12. Yang Hua et al  Determination of Aerofoil Data and Angle of Attack on the Mexico Rotor using Experimental Data To be presented at 'The Science of Making Torque from the Wind', June 2010

13. S. Schreck et al Rotational Augmentation Disparities in the UAE Phase VI and MEXICO Experiments To be presented at 'The Science of Making Torque from the Wind', June 2010

14. S. Gomez-Iradi and X. Munduate: A CFD Investigation of the Influence of Trip-Tape on the MEXICO Wind Turbine Blade Sections To be presented at 'The Science of Making Torque from the Wind', June 2010

15. B. Stoevesandt et al ''OpenFOAM:RANS-Simulation of a wind turbine and verification " To be presented at 'The Science of Making Torque from the Wind', June 2010

16. S. Breton, C. Sibuet, C. Masson, Analysis of the inflow conditions of the MEXICO Rotor : comparison between measurements and numerical simulations, To be presented at 'The Science of Making Torque from the Wind', June 2010

17. J.G. Schepers, K. Boorsma, H. Snel,  IEA Task 29 Mexnext: Analysis of wind tunnel measurements from the EU project Mexico, To be presented at 'The Science of Making Torque from the Wind', June 2010