Multilayered Fabrication Containing Wind Turbine Blade Solid Wastes for High-Performance Composite Fibers

Abstract

The disposal of wind turbine blade (WTB) waste poses a significant environmental challenge due to its high volume and complex composition. This study introduces an innovative approach to address this issue by repurposing WTB-derived glass fibers (GF) into high-performance polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-GF composite fibers through a scalable dry-jet wet spinning and forced assembly process. By integrating alternating layers of PAN and PAN-GF, layer thickness was precisely controlled to the micrometer scale, ensuring enhanced GF dispersion and improved orientation through shear stress at layer interfaces. The individual layer thickness in the multilayered PAN-GF fibers decreased progressively with an increasing number of layers, with 32-layered fibers exhibiting comparatively thicker layers, while 256-layered fibers demonstrated significantly thinner layers. The effects of WTB-GF incorporation on the thermal and mechanical properties of PAN fibers were examined using tensile testing and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Using GF loadings of 1–4 wt %, the 256-layered composite fibers demonstrated remarkable mechanical improvements, with stiffness (modulus) increasing by 54.7% from 15.10 to 23.37 GPa and tensile strength rising by 27.2% from 521.71 to 663.66 MPa compared to pure PAN fibers. TGA results indicate that increasing the GF content leads to higher residual weight at 900 °C, reflecting enhanced thermal stability and greater char yield. The 256-layered 10PAN-4GF fibers showed the highest residual mass (41.23 wt %), highlighting the significant contribution of GF reinforcement to thermal stabilization. Heat treatment further transformed these precursor fibers into carbonized fibers (CF) with exceptional thermal stability and performance under extreme conditions. This process highlights a sustainable pathway for reusing WTB waste and producing advanced composite fibers, making them ideal candidates for demanding applications such as aerospace and space exploration.