• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.207-220
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• 2008

The shear lag has been studied for many years. Nevertheless, existing research gives a variety of stress concentration factors. Unlike the elementary beam theory, the application of load is not unique in reality. For example, concentrated load can be applied as point load or distributed load along the height of the web. This non-uniqueness may be a reason for the discrepancy of the stress concentration factors in the existing studies. The finite element method has been often employed for studying the effect of the shear lag. However, not many researches have taken into account the influence of the finite element mesh on the shear lag phenomenon, although stress concentration can be quite sensitive to the mesh employed in the finite element analysis. This may be another source for the discrepancy of the stress concentration factors. It also needs to be noted that much less studies seem to have been conducted for the shear lag effect on deflection while some design codes have formulas. The present study investigates the shear lag effect in a simply supported box girder by the three-dimensional finite element method using shell elements. The whole girder is modeled by shell elements, and extensive parametric study with respect to the geometry of a box girder is carried out. Not only stress concentration but also deflection is computed. The effect of the way load is applied and the dependency of finite element mesh on the shear lag are carefully treated. Based on the numerical results thus obtained, empirical formulas are proposed to compute stress concentration and deflection that includes the shear lag effect.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.2
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• pp.167-179
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• 2020

This study provides a simplified method for the evaluation of shear lag stress in rectangular box T-joints. The occurrence of shear lag phenomenon in the box T-joint generates stress concentration localized at both web-flange junctions of the beam, which leads to cracking or failure in the weld region of the joint. To prevent such critical circumstance, peak stress at the weld region is required to be checked during a preliminary design stage. In this paper, the shear lag stresses in the T-joints were evaluated using least-work solution in which the longitudinal displacements of the beam flange and web were presumed. The evaluation process considered particularly the effect of column flange flexibility, which was represented by an axial spring model, on the shear lag stress distribution. A simplified method for stress evaluation was provided to avoid solving complex mathematical problems using a stress modification factor β_s from a parametric study. The results showed that the proposed method was valid for predicting the shear lag stress in the box T-joints manually, as well compared with finite element results. The results are further summarized, discussed, and clarified that more flexible column flange caused higher stress concentration.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.4
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• pp.493-502
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• 2022

Shear lag phenomenon has long been considered in numerous structural codes; however, the AISC provisions have now no longer proposed any unique equation to calculate the shear lag ratio in bolted connections for angles in general. It is noticeable that, however, codes used in this case are largely conservative and need to be amended. A parametric study consisting of 27 angle sections with equal legs and different with bolted connections was performed to investigate the effects of shear lag on the ultimate tensile capacity of angle members. The main parameters were: steel grade, connection length and eccentricity from the center of the plate, as well as the number of rows of bolts parallel to the applied force. The test results were compared with the predictions of the classical 1-x/l law proposed by Mons and Chesen to investigate its application to quantify the effect of shear lag. A parametric study was performed using valid FE models that cover a wide range of parameters. Finally, based on the numerical results, design considerations were proposed to quantify the effect of shear lag on the ultimate tensile capacity of the tensile members.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.3 s.75
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• pp.81-86
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of column spacing and beam size on the lateral displacement and shear lag phenomenon in bundled tube system. According to the parametric study in which the spacing of columns, the size of columns and girders in bundled tube were selected as a parameter, it is the most efficient to increase the size of the interior columns with the largest reduction of lateral drift if the steel tonnage of a frame can be increased. It was noticed that the shear lag was affected more by the exterior stiffness factor and ratio than by the interior ones when column spacing was changed, and when the size of column was changed, the reverse phenomenon was happened. And The change of column spacing affected shear lag, lateral drift, and tonnage more than that of column size or girder size.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.77-89
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• 2008

Presence of high degree of orthotropy enhances shear lag phenomenon in laminated composite box-beams and it persists till failure. In this paper three key parameters governing shear lag behavior of laminated composite box beams are identified and defined by simple expressions. Uniqueness of the identified key parameters is proved with the help of finite element method (FEM) based studies. In addition to this, for the sake of generalization of prediction of shear lag effect in symmetrical laminated composite box beams a feed forward back propagation neural network (BPNN) model is developed. The network is trained and tested using the data base generated by extensive FEM studies carried out for various b/D, b/tF, tF/tW and laminate configurations. An optimum network architecture has been established which can effectively learn the pattern. Computational efficiency of the developed ANN makes it suitable for use in optimum design of laminated composite box-beams.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.725-737
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• 2017

An analytical method considering axial equilibrium is proposed for the short- and long-term analyses of shear lag effect in reinforced concrete (RC) box girders. The axial equilibrium of box girders is taken into account by using an additional generalized displacement, referred to as the longitudinal displacement of the web. Three independent shear lag functions are introduced to describe different shear lag intensities of the top, bottom, and cantilever plates. The time-dependent material properties of the concrete are simulated by the age-adjusted effective modulus method (AEMM), while the reinforcement is assumed to behave in a linear-elastic fashion. The differential equations are derived based on the longitudinal displacement of the web, the vertical displacement of the cross section, and the shear lag functions of the flanges. The time-dependent expressions of the generalized displacements are then deduced for box girders subjected to uniformly distributed loads. The accuracy of the proposed method is validated against the finite element results regarding the short- and long-term responses of a simply-supported RC box girder. Furthermore, creep analyses considering and neglecting shrinkage are performed to quantify the time effects on the long-term behavior of a continuous RC box girder. The results show that the proposed method can well evaluate both the short- and long-term behavior of box girders, and that concrete shrinkage has a considerable impact on the concrete stresses and internal forces, while concrete creep can remarkably affect the long-term deflections.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.111-122
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• 2003

The paper presents a model for analysing the shear-lag effect on the slab of twin-girder composite decks subjected to static actions, support settlements and concrete shrinkage, which are the main actions of interest in composite bridge design. The proposed model includes concrete creep behaviour and shear connection flexibility. The shear-lag in the slab is accounted for by means of a new warping function. The considered actions are then applied to a realistic bridge deck and their effects are discussed. The proposed method is utilised to determine the slab effective widths for three different width-length ratios of the deck. Finally, a comparison between the results obtained with the Eurocode EC4-2 and those obtained with the proposed model is performed.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.317-322
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• 2001

A mathematical modelling technique is proposed for estimating the additional bending stresses of tube(s)-in-tube structures due to tube-tube interaction, which has a significant effects on the shear-lag phenomenon. The proposed method simulates the framed-tube structures with multiple internal tubes as equivalent multiple tubes, each composed of four equivalent orthotropic plate panels. Hence, the tube(s)-in-tube structure can be analysed by using an analogy approach where each tube is individually modelled by a continuous beam that can account for the flexural and shear deformations as well as the shear-lag effects. The numerical analysis is applicable for the structural analysis of framed-tube structures with single and multiple internal tubes, as well as those without internal tubes. The shear-lag phenomenon of such structures is studied with additiona] bending stresses and shear-lag reversal points.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.3
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• pp.445-455
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• 2020

Shear lag phenomenon has long been taken into consideration in various structural codes; however, the AISC provisions have not proposed any specific equation to calculate the shear lag ratio in some cases such as fillet-welded connections of front-to-front double channel sections. Moreover, those equations and formulas proposed by structural codes are based on the studies that were conducted on riveted and bolted connections, and can be applied to single channel sections whilst using them for fillet-welded double channels would be extremely conservative due to the symmetrical shape and the fact that bending moments will not develop in the gusset plate, resulting in less stress concentration. Numerical models are used in the present study to focus on parametric investigation of the shear lag effect on fillet-welded tension connection of double channel section to a gusset plate. The connection length, the eccentricity of axial load, the free length and the thickness of gusset plate are considered as the key factors in this study. The results are then compared to the estimates driven from the AISC-LRFD provisions and alternative equations are proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.549-559
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• 2017

As few multi-tower single-box multi-cell cable-stayed bridges with corrugated steel webs have been built, analysis is mostly achieved by combining single-girder model, beam grillage model and solid model in support of the design. However, such analysis methods usually suffer from major limitations in terms of the engineering applications: single-girder model fails to account for spatial effect such as shear lag effect of the box girder and the relevant effective girder width and eccentric load coefficient; owing to the approximation in the principle equivalence, the plane grillage model cannot accurately capture shear stress distribution and local stress state in both top and bottom flange of composite box girder; and solid model is difficult to be practically combined with the overall calculation. The usual effective width method fails to provide a uniform and accurate "effective length" (and the codes fail to provide a unified design approach at those circumstance) considering different shear lag effects resulting from dead load, prestress and cable tension in the construction. Therefore, a novel spatial grid model has been developed to account for shear lag effect. The theoretical principle of the proposed spatial grid model has been elaborated along with the relevant illustrations of modeling parameters of composite box girder with corrugated steel webs. Then typical transverse and longitudinal shear lag coefficient distribution pattern at the side-span and mid-span key cross sections have been analyzed and summarized to provide reference for similar bridges. The effectiveness and accuracy of spatial grid analysis methods has been finally validated through a practical cable-stayed bridge.