British Shear Lag Rules for Composite Girders

Abstract

The draft of that part of the proposed British Unified Bridge Code dealing with composite construction has recently been completed. The writers were primarily responsible for the formulation of the shear lag rules included in the Code. This paper gives details of the content, the origin, and the calibration of these rules. The longitudinal bending deflections and stresses of many girders are markedly affected by shear lag. It is therefore important that the bridge designer should have available suitable comprehensive information to enable him to allow for shear lag effects in design calculations.