Design_Led_Second_Life_ReUse_of_Decommissioned_Wind_Turbine_Blades

Abstract The increasing number of wind turbines reaching end of service life creates a growing challenge in the management of large glass-fibre-reinforced composite blades. Although material recycling remains important, immediate shredding or processing may destroy much of the geometry, structural form and embodied manufacturing value that remains within a decommissioned blade. Existing research has already demonstrated serious interest in structural reuse through segmentation and architectural applications. This concept proposes a design-led decommissioning model in which the intended second-life structure is designed before the turbine blade is dismantled. Architects and structural engineers would develop families of modular buildings and determine the dimensions, geometry and required structural characteristics of reusable blade components. Following inspection and engineering assessment, dismantlers would receive defined cutting specifications allowing suitable blade sections to be recovered at or near the decommissioning site in forms compatible with transport and subsequent modular manufacture. Recovered sections would then be inspected, structurally graded and incorporated into modular construction systems employing purpose-designed mechanical clamps and connection nodes, with supplementary bonding and glass-fibre reinforcement only where engineering analysis demonstrates their necessity. The concept emphasises mechanically secure, inspectable and potentially demountable connections so that components retain possibilities for subsequent reuse. Potential applications include agricultural structures, storage facilities, shelters, workshops, community buildings and other appropriately engineered structures. Curved blade sections may offer particular architectural opportunities analogous in principle to traditional cruck construction, where existing material geometry becomes part of the structural form rather than an obstacle to it. The proposal establishes a hierarchy of reuse before material destruction, while requiring structural testing, environmental life-cycle assessment, economic evaluation and regulatory certification before adoption. Its central proposition is that a retired turbine blade should first be evaluated as an engineered structural resource and should become recycling feedstock only when safe and environmentally advantageous structural reuse cannot be demonstrated.