Welded wire fabric

Photo: Ivy Steel & Wire Company

Concrete reinforcement with a new look

BY RICHARD A. RAMSEY
MANAGER, ENGINEERED SALES
IVY STEEL AND WIRE COMPANY

elded wire fabric, which is frequently re-

W ferred to as wire mesh, is manufactured

from controlled quality hot-rolled rods.
These rods are cold drawn through a series
of dies to reduce the rod diameter and to increase the
yield strength of the steel. It is manufactured to the
specifications of both the American Society for Testing
and Materials and the Canadian Standards Association,
as shown in the table. Each wire intersection is electri-
cally resistance-welded by a continuous automatic
welder. Pressure and heat fuse the intersecting wires in-
to a homogeneous section.
The application of welded wire fabric that first comes
to mind for most engineers and contractors is the rein-
forcement of nonstructural slabs on grade with rolls of
“building fabric.” This is usually light mesh designated This large mechanical bender at a wire mesh plant is
6x6—W1.4xW1.4 (old designation 6x6—10x10). The first capable of bending 12⁄ -inch-diameter wire at 4 inches on
pair of numbers indicates the spacing of the wires in center in sheets up to 30 feet long. Movable mandrels
adjustable to various spacings permit the bending of many
inches. The second pair gives the size of the respective different shapes with precision.
wires in cross-sectional area. The amount of wire de-
pends on the load on the slab, the slab thickness and
the spacing of the joints. The Portland Cement Associa- U.S. AND CANADIAN SPECIFICATIONS
FOR WELDED WIRE FABRIC
tion in the publication “Concrete Floors on Ground”
provides a selection chart for distributed steel that is U.S. Canadian
a good guide to the designer. When longer joint spacing Title* Specification Standard
is desired to reduce the number of joints more steel is
required. Cold-Drawn Steel
Concrete pipe manufacturers depend on welded wire Wire for Concrete
fabric, either smooth or deformed wire, to meet the cri- Reinforcement ASTM A82 CSA G30.3
teria of the industry’s ASTM standards. This mesh is usu- Welded Steel
ally supplied in large rolls that are easy to ship and store. Wire Fabric
Its ability to delay the concrete from cracking under test for Concrete
loads has made it the selected reinforcement for con- Reinforcement ASTM A185 CSA G30.5
crete pipe of all sizes and shapes. The use of welded wire
Deformed Steel
fabric produced to rigid ASTM standards has given con-
Wire for Concrete
crete pipe a high confidence level of acceptance. Reinforcement ASTM A446 CSA G30.14
For concrete streets, highways and runways welded
wire fabric is used in large sheets. This paving may take Welded Deformed
the form of jointed reinforced concrete pavement or Steel Wire Fabric
continuously reinforced concrete. In jointed slabs, the for Concrete
reinforcement is selected based on the traditional sub- Reinforcement ASTM A497 CSA G30.15
grade drag theory and the amount of steel will vary
* ASTM specifications and Canadian standards have identical titles.
based on the yield strength of the steel, the thickness of

The entire cage of reinforcement for a concrete median
barrier is made from one sheet of welded wire fabric using
heavy-gage wire bent to the exact shape required.
the slab, the spacing of the joints and the friction of the
subgrade. Sheets as large as 13 feet by 40 feet have been
used in paving projects. The amount of reinforcement in
jointed slabs is relatively low, usually in the range of 0.05
to 0.20 percent. In continuously reinforced concrete
pavement, the steel is designed to provide closely and
uniformly spaced cracks that will remain tight and not
ravel. The percentage of steel most commonly used is
0.60 percent.
Variable wire spacing and special benders
Welded wire fabric is taking on a new look and a new
dimension. Wire sizes as large as 1⁄2 inch in diameter and
the capability of varying the spacing of the wires in either
direction are now available in the United States. Long
considered a standard in Europe and other parts of the
world, this style of mesh is now being well received by
precasters and general contractors alike in the United
States.
A development that has helped to expand the use of
welded wire fabric is the mesh bender. The mechanical
bender is capable of shaping mesh into column ties,
beam stirrups and stair reinforcement for buildings as
well as for more complicated shapes of precast concrete.
The bender is made up of a series of adjustable mandrels
that are moved to coincide with the wire spacing. The ra-
dius of the bend can be changed by adding attachments
to the mandrels that will enlarge the radius. The degree
of the bend, which can vary from zero to 180 degrees, is
set by controls on the bender. After the proper setting is
made, the machine will repeat this exact bend for each
sheet of mesh. Most mesh benders can accommodate
three different settings or degrees of bend at one time. By
turning the sheet over and rotating it, bends in opposite
directions can be made. Reinforcement for concrete me-
dian barriers and stadium seats can readily be bent this
way.
Median barrier reinforcement can be made in a single
cage with variable spacing of wires in either direction.
Wires as large as 1⁄2 inch in diameter have been used.
Once the sheet of mesh is designed to meet all the steel
requirements, it is bent to the exact shape and dropped
into the form. It eliminates all the labor of tying small
rebars to make a cage.
Precast utility trenches that require the steel to be
spaced to accommodate openings cast in the concrete
are another application for this mesh reinforcement.
The ability to get the right amount of steel just where you
want it without having to cut away a lot of extra steel is
an important factor in control of costs. Because the steel
is welded into a rigid pattern, it will stay in place when
the concrete is placed.
Drainage structures such as concrete pipe, precast box
culverts, cast-in-place box culverts or low-flow drainage
ditches can all be reinforced with welded wire fabric. The
cast-in-place box culvert and the low-flow drainage
Stirrups for an inverted T-shaped beam are bent from wire
fabric in two cages that slide together to make the final
shape. Wires were precisely located to prevent interference
when the two parts are joined.
ditch represent recent applications. Bent fabric of heavy
sheets can be placed in the field much faster and with
greater accuracy than tying small bars. The mesh is
placed in two layers in the walls, roof and floor of the box
culverts to meet the design requirements. Where heavy
additional steel is required, bars are added.
Tying up column cages has always been a time con-
suming operation for the steel placer. Now, sheets of
mesh designed to provide the spacing and steel area for
ties in one direction and just enough wire perpendicu-
lar to that to stiffen the cage for handling are bent into
column cages, cutting required time by as much as 75
percent. On projects with a lot of columns the same size,
this can amount to a large saving in money and time.
Beam stirrup cages are made similar to the column
cages. In addition to providing shear steel in rectangular
beams in buildings, mesh stirrups are being used in pre-

Reinforcement for underground utility structures is
manufactured with wires spaced at irregular intervals. This
allows for forming openings in the concrete without having
to cut the wire mesh.
cast beams for both highway and building construction.
In L-shaped and T-shaped beams, the stirrups are made
in two cages that slide together to make the final shape.
This is accomplished by leaving out the longitudinal car-
rying wires in the area common to both cages.
Savings in steel tonnage
The capability of making wires at various sizes and
spacings gives the designer a means to provide the exact
area of steel per foot required and thus save tonnage on
many high-rise projects. A designer may call for #3 bars
at 12 inch centers to make the placing of the bars and
their inspection easier. In doing this he will usually
“over-steel” the slab. By using a sheet of mesh with the
exact area of steel required, he assures himself of the
right amount of steel at the right place.
Another tonnage saver is the use of a higher yield
strength when designing in welded wire fabric. The ACI
Building Code allows for the use of a higher yield up to
80,000 psi in most design applications, provided the de-
sign yield is measured at a strain of 0.35 percent. This
makes possible a considerable saving of steel in com-
parison with the normal design yield of 60,000 psi. Pro-
jects using 80,000 psi have been built on the West Coast
and projects using 70,000 psi and 72,500 psi are com-
mon elsewhere in the United States.
Other new applications
New applications of welded wire fabric are not limited
to those reported here; there will be more. The Wire Re-
inforcing Institute with its headquarters in Washington
D.C. is constantly looking for new ways to increase and
improve the use of mesh. One research project under
consideration is the use of wire mesh column reinforce-
ment. In this project, the vertical wires as well as the col-
umn ties would be considered in the design. A new spec-
ification for a high yield wire is being considered that
would reflect some of the new materials and methods of
the manufacturer. This continuing research should re-
sult in more applications for welded wire fabric in the
near future.
PUBLICATION#C810803
Copyright © 1981, The Aberdeen Group
All rights reserved