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

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.