Repourposing of FRP Composite Decomissioned Wind Turbin Blades in Bridge Construction
摘要
In structural recycling of FRP composite decommissioned wind turbine blades (dWTB), two options are often distinguished: reuse and repurpose. Several repurpose methods are under development in many ongoing research projects that involve dWTB for civil engineering applications, including bridges. The latter field of the WTB repurposing has been recently the subject of the comprehensive research programm carried out by the authors at the Rzeszow University of Technology (RUT), Poland. Two different bridge concepts, based on the two types of dWTB, namely: LM 29.1 and Vestas V66, are the subject of the current research. Hybrid structures of a typical footbridge and a typical road bridge with spans of up to 15 m were developed, consisting of a dWTB-based main girders and a concrete deck slab, reinforced with GFRP bars and combined with girders. Up to date research works included: conceptual design of both structures, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) of the actual blades geometry, material testing of FRP composites, FE modelling, numerical analyses and verification of basic limit states according to the relevant standards. The results of research and analysis, brifly presented in the paper, have shown that the proposed hybrid structures can be safely used in bridge construction.