Justine Beauson

Recycling solid residues recovered from glass fibre-reinforced composites – A review applied to wind turbine blade materials:

For the sustainable development of modern societies, optimized life cycle management of any technologies must be considered, from their development and implementation to their end of life (EoL). This is of main concern for the wind energy sector. Rapidly growing, this industrial sector will have to face large amount of future wind turbine (WT) blades coming to EoL. Among the EoL solutions available for WT blades, i.e. reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, incineration or disposal, this literature review focuses on recycling and particularly the recycling of shredded composite (SC) materials and recovered glass fibre (GF) into new polymer composite. WT blades are mainly made of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) using thermosetting resins. Shredding this material and recovering GF are possible recycling solutions for WT blade. Based on a detailed literature review, the formulations of new composites elaborated with the residues are presented in a novel standardized way based on weight fractions. The mechanical properties of the composite manufactured are thereafter compared and discussed.

Materials for Wind Turbine Blades: An Overview

A short overview of composite materials for wind turbine applications is presented here. Requirements toward the wind turbine materials, loads, as well as available materials are reviewed. Apart from the traditional composites for wind turbine blades (glass fibers/epoxy matrix composites), natural composites, hybrid and nanoengineered composites are discussed. Manufacturing technologies for wind turbine composites, as well their testing and modelling approaches are reviewed.

Wind Turbine Blades: An End of Life Perspective

In 2016, the first offshore windfarm constructed in the world—located in Denmark, near Ravnsborg—is turning 25 years old, and will soon be decommissioned. After decommissioning, most of the material of the turbine can be recycled; only the composite materials found in the blades represent a challenge. This part looks at end of life solutions for this material. Wind turbine blade structure and material are described. The ends of life solutions existing and under development are detailed.

Use of micro-tomography for validation of method to identify interfacial shear strength from tensile tests of short regenerated cellulose fibre composites

The interfacial shear strength of short regenerated cellulose fibre/polylactide composites was characterized by means of an industry-friendly adhesion test method. The interfacial shear strength wa ...

Thermal recycling and re-manufacturing of glass fibre thermosetting composites

The impact of using thermally recycled glass fibre in re-manufactured composites was investigated. A unidirectional glass fibre thermosetting composite laminate was manufactured. The matrix in one part of the laminate was burnt off to recover the glass fibres. These recycled glass fibres were used to manufacture a new composite laminate with the same fibre architecture as the pristine one. The fibres, the matrix and the composite laminates were thoroughly characterised and analysed. The results show that good materials quality was obtained for both laminates. A difference in fibre packing behaviour was observed in the composites with the pristine and the recycled fibres, which lead to a lower fibre volume fraction in the latter one. The Youngs modulus of the composites was not changed by the recycling process, if the lower fibre volume fraction is taken into account. However, a marked drop in the maximum stress of the composites was reported, which was found to be related to the loss in maximum stress of the fibres.