Experimental and analytical investigation of <scp>3D</scp> printed specimens reinforced by different forms of recyclates from wind turbine waste
Mazin Tahir, Amirmohammad Rahimizadeh, Jordan Kalman, Kazem Fayazbakhsh, Larry Lessard
Abstract
Abstract Waste from hundreds of thousands of tons of non‐recyclable end‐of‐life wind turbine blades will be generated within the next decades. This work studies the effect of recycled fiber categories on the tensile properties of reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) specimens made by fused filament fabrication 3D printing. Three different fiber categories, that is, virgin, ground, and pyrolyzed, are examined and compared experimentally and analytically using micromechanical models. Tensile tests are performed on different PLA specimens prepared with the three fiber categories and two fiber contents of 5% and 10% per ASTM D638. Compared to virgin fibers, both recycled fibers, that is, ground and pyrolyzed fibers, exhibit higher strength and stiffness values. Ground recycled fibers showed higher ultimate tensile strength compared to the pyrolyzed ones, while higher stiffness values were obtained for pyrolyzed fibers. Single fiber tensile tests, pull‐out interfacial strength tests, thermal analysis, and microscopic imaging are performed to evaluate parameters used in the micromechanical models. The Halpin‐Tsai and Cox models showed good agreement with the experimental modulus results with errors less than 5% for pyrolyzed fibers, while the minimum prediction error was 24.1% for strength results.