Mesh Check - Lion Enclosure

[SteynvW]

Hi All

We are currently designing a Carnivore Enclosure at a Veterinary Hospital.
We have concrete walls on 3 sides and a steel ceiling and steel closure on the 4th side.

The ceiling has a hollow section frame with steel mesh in between.
The architect specd a 3mm welded mesh with 50x25mm openings.

Now theoretically a adult male lion (250kg) can jump and hang on the mesh.

The contractor provided us with samples of the mesh and it does seem quite flimsy.


My initial though that I went with was analyzing a single strand and determining wat
vertical force can be applied in the middle of the strand that will cause the wire to yield,
Just using basic statics. (Ignoring plastic deformation, might be a bit conservative) and
determining how many strands will be required.

How will you go about analyzing/testing the mesh?

 

[CANPRO]

You could probably crunch a few numbers to get a feel for what you might need, but I'd be putting more stock into past performance. Is there a type of fence that has been used for this type of enclosure successfully in the past? I feel like you can crunch all the numbers you want but when a hungry lion starts pawing and biting the fence, your calculations will be almost useless.

As far as testing goes, sounds like you might need a hungry lion and some steak.

 

[BridgeSmith]

I thought chain link was the preferred material for that type of application. The mesh is strong enough and distributes load really well; just have to carefully check the connection to the frame.

...the hungry lion + steak approach works too. We'll miss you.

 

[BUGGAR]

Or read Temple Grandin and make sure the lion does not want to climb the walls.
If the Architect specified the mesh, are you sure you want to subsume this responsibility? Don't Architects go take Zoo classes just for this?

 

[3DDave]

It occurs to me that the best approach is to call several zoos.

 

[dhengr]

SteynvW:
What you really should be careful about is the attachment of the wire mesh or whatever to the four side walls, at the tops of the walls. I would want to be able to suspend the weight of the lion from a 1 foot strip of the ceiling material (wire mesh, whatever), reacting on the wall tops, and that’s a lot more than 250kg as a lateral load reaction on the wall. That’s 250kg as a vert. load on a catenary type load carrying system, as a lateral load on the top of the walls, plus the vert. loads. And, you sure don’t want that connection breaking loose. I would make that ceiling system some stl. bar grating or some such, which would span btwn. the side walls. You want some light and air flow from above, that’s all. As for what that ceiling system should be, Arch’s. think they know about pretty sometimes, but they seem to know nothing about loads or load carrying systems.

 

[MIStructE_IRE]

I would be very surprised if there’s not already some zoological standard for this. Don’t reinvent the wheel.

 

[oldestguy]

Call or go to a big zoo and get the word from experienced.