Computation of the elastic properties of a resin impregnated wire mesh by the means of a homogenisation procedure

The present paper presents a homogenisation technique applied to the proble m of calculating equivalent material properties of a resin impregnated wire mesh, Although this type of material can be expected to possess, in genera l, a four-fold axis of rotational symmetry, it was found that a transversal ly isotropic model approximates the material behaviour to within 3.5%. It i s therefore concluded that a transversally isotropic model is adequate for representing the resin impregnated mesh in structural calculations. (C) 200 1 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.