Abstract
Fatigue tests were carried out on welded steel wire mesh and RC beam in order to investigate the fatigue strength of welded steel wire mesh made with spot welding. Besides, welding residual stress and stress concentration at the crossing portion of the bars, which influenced fatigue performance of the mesh very much, were investigated by experiment and FEM analysis respectively. Fatigue strength of the mesh was mush higher than the specified design strength for welded steel reinforcing bar, because welding residual stress was small, and stress concentration is relatively mild. Finally, fatigue crack propagation analysis was applied to estimate the fatigue strength and propose a design curve for the steel wire mesh made with spot welding.
