Mechanical Performance of Concrete Incorporating Waste Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Materials from Recycled Wind Turbine Blades

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the effects of the addition of waste glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) materials from wind turbine blades (WWTB)—designated as WWTB-GFRP—into concrete as fiber reinforcement. Compressive and flexural strength and flexural toughness of concrete cured in standard conditions for 28 days were investigated. Fiber addition rates of 1–1.75 vol. % have been used for two types of WWTB-GFRP: with wood component and after wood removal. According to the test results, the increase in the WWTB-GFRP fiber content leads to a slight to negligible decrease in compressive strength of 6% maximum (for 1.75% of fibers with wood added), an increase in flexural strength up to 22% (for 1.75% of fibers added after wood removal), and an increase in flexural toughness by more than 4 times (for the mixture with 1.75% of fibers without wooden content). Mixtures containing fibers without wood content demonstrated better results in all tests. In general, the results presented in this paper support the use of WWTB-GFRP material as fiber reinforcement in concrete.