Preparation and Characterization of Polymeric Composites Assembled from Fiberglass Fabric Waste from the Wind Blades Manufacturing Process

Currently, there is still no knowledge of the potential uses of the increasing post-industrial fiberglass fabric waste generated from wind turbine manufacturing industries. The present work proposes reusing this fiberglass fabric waste as reinforcement in new thermosetting polymer composites. Polyester composites with different numbers and stacking sequences of stitched and random scraps of fiberglass fabrics were prepared using a resin transfer molding process. Moreover, their thermal stability, flexural and tensile properties were evaluated. Results of the statistical analysis performed according to Tukey's methodology indicated that the number of fiberglass layers is the decisive factor influencing the mechanical properties of the developed composites, whereas their stacking sequence does not have a significant influence. The composites with four layers of fiberglass fabric waste showed promising mechanical properties with flexural and tensile strengths higher than 205 and 115 MPa, respectively, and Young's Modulus higher than 2700 MPa, enabling their use in numerous applications. On the other hand, the number of fiberglass fabric layers had only a small influence on the thermal stability of the composites of around 335 & DEG;C. Overall results showed that reusing fiberglass fabric waste as reinforcement in new polymer composites is a feasible way to valorize this waste from wind turbine industries.

Automated summary

This study investigates the feasibility of using post-industrial fiberglass fabric waste as reinforcement in new thermosetting polymer composites. The results show that the number of fiberglass layers is the decisive factor influencing the mechanical properties of the composites.