EVALUATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE WITH RECYCLED FRP WIND BLADE WASTE MATERIAL

The wider short-lived application of Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites especially in wind turbine blades raises questions about their end-of-life scenarios. A report by the National Composite Centre shows that nearly 14,000 wind turbine blades will be decommissioned globally which will generate nearly 50,000 tonnes of blades to be landfilled (NCC, 2022). Downcycling FRP materials in concrete applications is a promising and low energy intensive method for reducing the landfill amount. This study presents a new type of discrete reinforcing elements for concrete produced from waste FRP composite materials. FRP Needles were derived from reclaimed wind blades made of GFRP and had a length of 50 mm and an aspect ratio of 36. FRP needles were incorporated in concrete to replace 2.5% of the coarse natural aggregate (NA) by volume. The concrete compressive and splitting tensile strength properties were compared with control specimens with 100% coarse natural aggregates. The results suggest that the incorporation of 2.5% FRP needles in concrete results in an increase in split tensile strength and only slight degradation in compressive strength.