Mechanical behavior of a wire-woven metal under compression

In this paper a new addition to the family of wire-woven metals, named WBC (Wire-woven Bulk Cross), is analyzed. The small helical radius of the wires composing WBC is expected to result in less curved struts in the truss structure, which give the benefit in terms of the strength and stiffness. The geometry and the basic equations of relative density, equivalent compressive strength and the Young’s modulus of WBC are introduced. And also the complicated equations with consideration of curved struts and brazed joints are presented. Through the experiments and FEA, the properties of WBC composed of SUS304 stainless steel wires are investigated. The experimental and FEA results of WBC are compared with those of other wire-woven metals. Because of the low curvature of the struts composing WBC and the doubled intersection among the wires, the lower limit of relative density at which WBC resists compression can be set a very low value. On the other hand, although very high densities are geometrically allowable, its practical upper limit is about 8% because of the high stress concentration and the consequent breakage of the brazed joints. The results indicate that WBC has high potential as a material for the low density core of sandwich panels.