Hello

For scaled test models you need to match Tip Spead Ration for both the scaled model and the actuale size not the Reynolds number.

The Tip speed ratio is the most important parameter, you can't easily match both the Reynolds no. and the tip speed ratio especially at high scaling ratios.

With a simple derivation you can find that in order to satisfy both the Reynolds no. and the Tip speed Ratio similarities, you must let:

Uinf(tunnel)=R*Uinf(Full Scale) and w(tunnel)=R2*w(Full Scale)

where R is the scaling ratio (R>1), Uinf is the free stream speed and w is the wind turbine rotational speed.

Now for your scale 1:500 you'll need to supply a tunnel flow with 500 times the actual air flow, and allow the turbine to rotate 250000 times the designed rotational speed, which is actually impossible.

So you'll have to sacrifice the Reynolds no. similarity in order to conserve the tip speed ratio and so the velocity triangles and angles of attack, which I see is more critical than to satisfy the same Reynolds no. but for a different blade inlet angles.

Hope that was right and useful. :)

You mention it's a floating wind turbine.  Is this a wind-wave test with the wind tunnel above a wave basin, or just a wind tunnel test? 

For wind-wave testing, it's common to scale the aerodynamics by Froude number, because that is what the hydrodynamics are best scaled by.  This scaling obviously causes aerodynamic performance problems.  At 1:50 scale, researchers have worked at compensating the rotor geometry for the reduced Reynolds number, with moderate success.  I'm not sure that 1:500-scale is possible though.

Thanks so much for the answers, we will carry the model tests after the computer simulation study.