Analytical Study on the Effective Flange Width for T-shaped Shear Walls

Abstract

This study was organized to derive simplified expressions to estimate the effective flange width for T-shaped shear walls at different loading stages. For that purpose, the variation in the effective flange width was explored by introducing dimensionless effective flange width coefficient. According to the principle of minimum potential energy, the theoretical expression of the effective flange width coefficient in the elastic stage was obtained. Furthermore, a parametric study considering the axial load ratio, height-width ratio of flange and width-thickness ratio of the flange, as well as the section aspect ratio was conducted to determine the effective flange width using verified nonlinear finite-element models. In light of the parametric analysis results, a formula model was proposed depending on the axial load ratio and height-width ratio of flange. Finally, the predictions of the proposed simplified formulas were verified with the theoretical solutions or finite element (FE) results, which indicated that the proposed formulas can accurately capture the effective flange width at the elastic, yield and limit state.