Abstract

Anchored wire meshes are applied worldwide as protective structures against rockfall. The mechanical performance of a wire mesh is evaluated through laboratory tests, but these are generally not representative of the field conditions. This paper presents a simple tool to predict the force-displacement response of an anchored mesh panel to an out-of-plane load, extending the experimental standard punch test characteristic values (ISO 17745, ISO 17746, UNI 11437) to field conditions. Discrete element simulations are used to provide analytical relations that account for the effect of the different problem’s variables on the ultimate resistance and maximum deflection of a mesh panel. The numerical results are subsequently used to define a master curve permitting the force-displacement response of a generic anchored mesh panel to be forecasted. Finally, the master curve is validated against ex-post simulations, and practical implications are discussed.

Introduction

The use of secured drapery systems has experienced a large growth in the last decades. Despite having been applied worldwide, strong unknowns about their field mechanical behavior still exist. To date, the mechanical behavior of a wire mesh is characterized by using laboratory procedures that are poorly representative of the in-field conditions, and therefore their results cannot be directly used in the design phase [1]. This highlights the need of a procedure that can provide a more realistic characterization of the field response of anchored wire meshes. The realization of large-scale field tests, even if they may be very informative, is difficult because of both technical and financial limitations. In this perspective, the recourse to a numerical approach represents a valid alternative. In the recent past, the discrete element method (DEM) has been efficiently used to model wire meshes from laboratory conditions [2, 3, 4, 5, 6] to large scale applications [7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 13].

In this work, discrete element simulations are used to analyze the force-displacement response of a mesh panel subject to a punching load. Firstly, the role of the specimen dimension and of the punching element size on the result of the laboratory punch test procedure is quantified (Sec. 3). Secondly, based on the results of a large set of simulations, a simple approach that allows the mechanical response of a generic anchored mesh panel to be forecasted is proposed. This will permit one to predict the entire force-displacement response of a mesh panel starting from the results of the standard laboratory punch test.

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