%0 Journal Article %T Estudio del comportamiento estructural de mallas de metal expandido sometidas a tracci¨®n %A Mart¨ªnez %A Gabriela %A Graciano %A Carlos %A Casanova %A Euro %A Pelliccioni %A Orlando %J Bolet¨ªn T¨¦cnico %D 2008 %I Scientific Electronic Library Online %X currently, there is a need for new structural configurations that are able to absorb large amounts of energy by plastic deformation. in this regard, expanded metal sheets are an alternative. in this paper, the structural behavior of expanded metal sheets subjected to tensile loading is investigated in depth. expanded metal sheets are fabricated by a cutting and slitting process producing a diamond like cell. these cells are defined by two axes. this paper is conducted in two phases: the first one, generating and testing experimental models in different directions with respect to the major axis; and the second one, generating computational numerical models which reproduce the experimental tests. the numerical results were contrasted with the experimental results. load-displacement curves for each configuration are presented, showing the significant influence of the major axis orientation in the structural response of the model. %K expanded metal sheets %K energy absorption. %U http://www.scielo.org.ve/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0376-723X2008000200003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en