Recycled FRP Concrete Floor Forms Without Steel Reinforcement
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Solution Overview
Problem
The construction industry faces challenges with concrete's poor tensile strength, requiring labor-intensive steel reinforcement, which corrodes and is costly, and lacks efficient recycling methods for wind turbine blades, leading to environmental waste.
Innovation Solution
A concrete floor and ceiling system using recycled fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) forms that provide tensile strength, allowing for low carbon concrete without steel reinforcement, and can be manufactured through injection molding, 3D printing, or pultrusion, with forms designed to stay in place and integrate with concrete.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If steel reinforcement is used to improve tensile strength of concrete, then structural strength is improved, but labor intensity and cost increase due to transport and placement requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the formwork function with the reinforcement function into a single integrated component. The fiberglass form serves both as the mold for shaping concrete and as the tensile reinforcement element, eliminating the need for separate steel rebar placement operations and reducing overall labor intensity.
Solution Approach 2:
The fiberglass form performs multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a temporary formwork to define the concrete shape, provides tensile reinforcement to compensate for concrete's weakness in tension, and serves as a permanent structural component after concrete curing, eliminating the need for separate reinforcement materials.
2Strength
If steel reinforcement is used to improve tensile strength of concrete, then structural strength is improved, but corrosion resistance deteriorates when exposed to water or moisture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter from steel to fiberglass, which fundamentally alters the corrosion resistance property. Fiberglass is inherently resistant to corrosion from water and moisture, eliminating the rust and degradation issues associated with steel reinforcement in wet environments while maintaining tensile strength capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses fiberglass (glass fiber reinforced plastic) as a composite material that combines the tensile strength properties needed for reinforcement with the corrosion resistance required for durability in moisture-exposed environments, creating a material that outperforms steel in both aspects for this application.
3Shape
If traditional formwork is used to enable irregular shapes, then shape flexibility is improved, but labor costs remain high due to complex assembly and removal processes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the formwork and reinforcement functions into a single fiberglass component that remains in place after concrete curing. This integration eliminates the labor-intensive process of assembling and disassembling traditional formwork while maintaining the ability to create irregular shapes, as the fiberglass form defines the concrete geometry and stays as part of the finished structure.
4Ease of manufacture
If wind turbine blades are disposed of in landfills, then recycling complexity is reduced, but environmental harm increases due to waste accumulation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a recovery process for discarded wind turbine blades by chopping them into small pieces and incorporating them as aggregate in new concrete products. This transforms the waste material into a valuable resource, enabling circular economy principles while reducing landfill dependency and environmental harm from blade disposal.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the harmful environmental factor of wind blade waste into a beneficial material resource. By using chopped recycled blades as concrete aggregate, the invention transforms an environmental problem into a sustainable construction material, creating economic value from what would otherwise be discarded waste.
Data Source
AI summary
A building component system including a rigid plastic or fiberglass (FRP) form made from one of various shapes, an example of one such shape having an arch in each of two perpendicular vertical planes and having a plurality of protrusions configured to engage concrete poured on top of the rigid plastic form. The plastic is recycled plastic from wind turbine blades or consumer products such as plastic bottles. The plastic can be fiber reinforced such as an FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic). The system also includes concrete poured on top of the form and cured to bind to the form at least at the plurality of protrusions, thereby forming an arched ceiling for a first story of a building and a flat roof or flat floor for a second story of a building. Bridge decking is another application, for use in infrastructure.