Steel cortical meshes are widely used to reduce the hazards of slopes in mountain regions. The role of Steel cortical meshes to prevent the detachment of rocky fragments and blocks from the surface of the rock masses thereby increasing the safety for nearby people, infrastructures, road assets etc is a proven fact. The mechanical behavior of the considered mesh is investigated through laboratory punch tests.
In this work, a plain steel wire double-twisted hexagonal mesh is modeled with the discrete element method for the evaluation of its mechanical behavior. In the current model, the wires are replaced with long-range interaction forces between nodes of the mesh. The implemented force-displacement curves for the basic elements, i.e. single wires and double-twists, are derived from laboratory tensile tests. The mechanical behavior of the considered mesh is investigated through laboratory punch tests. The results of these numerical tests permitted to highlight two subsequent phases linked to the geometric distortion of hexagons and to the tensile properties of the materials respectively. An anisotropic stress-strain distribution was also observed, which reveals a preferential direction of tensile forces in the mesh panel.