The new tool insert design for prevention the rotation of horizontal wire during shear testing of welded fabric

Abstract

Many new requirements in the field of experimental mechanics, like testing of metallic materials, emphasize traceability and accuracy of test results as the end goal. These requirements have energy efficiency context too, due to the increase of mass productions of many finished and semi-finished products based on steel metallurgy. Combined, both of the above-noted perspectives impose the need for improvements of some of the existing test methods. This paper describes one such improvement, the developing of the new insert tool for testing of shear strength of the welded fabric, for civil engineering. The developed tool allows repeated testing of welded joints sampled from the welded fabric of different dimensions without tool changes and is generally related with the procedure for the determination of shear strength properties of different sizes of wires used for welded fabric. The construction of the tool insert allows aiming high operation safety and higher accuracy of results, which is described in detail. The paper also presents experimental results and the Finite Element Analysis performed in order to verify the impact of insert tool application on the testing results. The obtained results and conclusion about the possible contributions of the developed insert tool for extensively testing of welded fabric for civil engineering are discussed.