The crushing of the glass fiber-reinforced
polymer (GFRP) previously separated from the
other wind-turbine-blade materials produces a waste
with minimum contents of deformable particles of
balsa wood and polymers, being mainly composed
of GFRP-composite fibers. This residue is named
selectively crushed wind-turbine blade (SCWTB).
This research evaluates the impact of adding up to
6.0% by volume of SCWTB on the deformability,
load-bearing capacity and energy absorption of concrete subjected to compression, bending, and indirect-tensile stresses. SCWTB increased the failure
strain of concrete in the direction parallel to a compression load, although it led the failure and fracture
strains to match. However, the strain increase from
failure to fracture was 2000–3000 µε in the transverse direction to loading, so concrete with SCWTB
was load-bearing after failure. GFRP-composite fibers’ stitching effect was more noticeable under bending stresses. Thus, 1.5% vol. and 6.0% vol. SCWTB
resulted in almost the same bending failure stress in
concrete, around 6.1–6.2 MPa, and contents from 3.0
and 6.0% vol. SCWTB provided load-bearing capacity in simple and notched-specimen bending, respectively. In addition, the low content of deformable particles in SCWTB increased the deflection increment from failure to fracture in bending, although the
presence of such particles augmented energy absorption. No SCWTB content provided load-bearing
capacity under indirect-tensile stresses, although it
did increase pre-failure deformability. In general, the
energy absorbed by concrete increased by up to 43%
when adding SCWTB, the use of up to 6.0% of this
waste being recommended to increase the ductility of
concrete.
