Scholarly record

EXPERIMENTAL AXIAL FAN WITH GEOPOLYMER BLADES

Robin Hron

Abstract

Geopolymers are green and eco-friendly alternative to commonly used resins. Geopolymer are derived from the naturally occurring recyclable geological materials and combine low temperature, polymer-like processing with high temperature stability and fire resistibility without toxic smoke generation. The aim of this work is to manufacture geopolymer blades for an experimental axial fan, which is the first step on the way to produce full-fledged geopolymer blades. These blades could be then used for ventilators in road tunnels, fans for cooling in power plants or for blades on wind turbines. At present, used, damaged and discarded composite blades are recycled in a very complicated way. For the experiment, a newly developed geopolymer resin GPL 30 was used. This paper presents mechanical properties of this geopolymer resin. Specifically, compression strength of a geopolymer composite was investigated according to ASTM D695 standard and strength of a geocomposite construction node was measured according to ASTM C234 standard. All the tests were performed at room temperature and at 400 В°C. Additionally the influence of hot/wet conditioning (70 В°C and 85% of relative humidity) was investigated. The tests have shown sufficient strength properties of the GPL 30 resin for the blades manufacturing. The blades were manufactured by curing in a mould, installed on engine and successfully tested. This research can establish new environmentally friendly blades which meet strict safety and strength requirements.

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