Water transport and porosity trends of concrete containing integral additions of raw-crushed wind-turbine blade

Raw-Crushed Wind-Turbine Blade (RCWTB) is a novel material from the recycling and non-selective crushing of wind-turbine blades composed of fiberglass-composite fibers and polyurethane and balsa-wood particles. This research evaluates for the first time the water-transport and porosity behaviors of concrete with RCWTB through water-penetration-under-pressure, full-immersion water-absorption, capillarity-water-absorption and mercury-intrusion-porosimetry tests. RCWTB contents of 1.5%, 3.0%, 4.5%, and 6.0% were considered. All the RCWTB concretes yielded adequate results for depth of water penetration under pressure and water-absorption rate, although this waste slightly worsened both properties. RCWTB also increased the proportion of pores between 100 and 250 nm in size, which increased total and capillary effective porosities to maximum values of 13.54% and 13.51%, respectively, and sharply decreased the compression-related mechanical properties of concrete. Capillary effective porosity included the porosity effect of balsa-wood particles on concrete mechanical performance, so it allowed estimating the compression-related mechanical properties with a deviation lower than ±10%.

This research work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Universities within the framework of the State Program for the Promotion of Talent and Employability in R + D + i, State Mobility Subprogram, of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2021–2023 [CAS22/00013]; MICINN, AEI, EU, ERDF and NextGenerationEU/PRTR [grant numbers PID2020-113837RB-I00; PID2023-146642OB-I00; 10.13039/501100011033; TED2021-129715B–I00]; the Junta de Castilla y León (Regional Government) and ERDF [grant number UIC-231; BU033P23]; the University of Burgos [grant number SUCONS, Y135.GI]; and, finally, the University of Padova.