Evaluation and modeling of the cyclic mechanical behavior of electro welded wire mesh

Abstract

Welded wire mesh (WWM) is an arrangement of longitudinal and transverse wires, which are joined at the intersection using the electric resistance welding method (Ternium, 2019). WWM are manufactured from carbon steel, and commonly used to reinforce concrete etructures, particularly slab walls for lowcost industrialized construction (Carrillo & Alcocer, 2012b, 2012a). In Colombia, the WWM must fulfill requirements from NTC 5806 (ICONTEC, 2019), as stipulated in the Colombian buildings code (Comité-AIS-100, 2010). The use of the WWM is restricted for special seismic system applications that require specific detailing, such as special moment frames, special structural walls (American Concrete Institute, 2019). Wires for manufacturing WWM are fabricated by means of a cold drawing process of carbon steel rods (Carrillo et al., 2019a). In this manufacturing method, a plastic strain process is commonly employed to manufacture components from low-carbon steel bars, reducing the cross section of the initial bar to a specified final diameter or thickness. The final wire diameter used for WWM is obtained through several steps, forcing a steel wire through a series of dies that progressively reduce the diameter, causing plastic strain, increasing the yield strength (fy) at each stage, and introducing residual stresses. The cold drawing process is one of the most effective method for enhancing the surface finish, tolerances, and mechanical properties (Raji & Oluwole, 2011a). The resulting wires exhibit a smooth or corrugated surface (Carrillo t al., 2019a).