2024-02-27
welded wire mesh-When to Use Wire Mesh in Concrete?
When freshly poured concrete sets around wire mesh, it grips onto the mesh, which effectively inhibits its internal movement in the horizontal plane. Concrete shrinks and expands during temperature changes. The degree of this expansion is indicated by the thermal expansion coefficient, which is the same for steel and concrete. Since the concrete and wire mesh shrink and expand to the same degree. Here, the wire mesh allows the concrete some internal movement while preventing excessive movement that would cause crack formation.Concrete, while strong in compression, is weak under flexural loads. For perspective: its compressive strength is roughly ten times greater than its flexural strength. Steel, on the other hand, has high flexural strength. Here’s how including steel wire mesh in concrete increases the flexural strength:The hardened concrete grips onto the wire mesh, thus the two can’t move independently. When a flexural load is applied to the concrete, its natural inclination is to give way and form cracks. However, the wire mesh is capable of withstanding this applied load and only flexes slightly. Since the concrete must move with the mesh, the mesh prevents it from giving way. If cracks start to form in some concrete areas, it can only travel until it reaches the mesh, where crack propagation is halted.