Shear Lag Analysis and Effective Width of Curved Girder Bridges

Abstract

The effective width of curved girder bridges is formulated by substituting the flange stress derived from present theory into the equation of effective width definition for the curved girders. The required information in formulating the effective width rule for design of curved girder bridges are provided. The actual longitudinal stress distributions for the curved girders are evolved from the present theory for shear lag in order to determine the effective width. The thin-walled curved girders used in this investigation are based on box and channel cross sections, and are analyzed for a uniform lateral load and for a concentrated load. Numerical examples are shown for several problems to investigate the effect on the effective width of curved girder bridges. The values of the effective width obtained by the present theory are compared with those of the straight girder bridges. According to the results, the values of the effective width of curved girder bridges can be regarded as the values of the straight girder bridges approximately.