Recycling of FRP Wind Blade Waste Material in Concrete

Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are increasingly used across various industries. However, there is a need to integrate end-of-life scenarios into design and manufacturing workflows to reduce the high volumes of landfill waste they generate. According to estimates, the UK and Europe will need to decommission around 52,000 tonnes of wind turbine blades annually. With this rise in blade waste,there is a pressing need for effective recycling solutions. This study investigates the effective use of waste fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials as discrete reinforcing elements in concrete for civil engineering applications. The needles were derived from a reclaimed wind blade made of glass FRP (GFRP), with a length of 50 mm and an aspect ratio of 8.3. The GFRP needles were added at 5% volumetrically to the coarse natural aggregate on top of the natural aggregates. The results suggestthat incorporating GFRP needles into concrete increases both splitting tensile strength and compressive strength while reducing the slump (workability) compared with the control specimens.