Effect of Design Parameters on Shear Lag in Orthotropic Deck of Steel Road Bridges

The phenomenon of shear lag refers to the increases of the bending stresses near the flange-to-web junctions, and the corresponding decreases in the flange stresses away from these junctions.

In the plated structures with wide flanges, such as in the orthotropic deck of the steel road bridges, shear lag caused by shear strains, may be taken into account by a reduced flange width concentrated along the webs of the steel plate girders.

In the norm EN 1993-1-5, the concept of taking shear lag into account is based on effective^s width of the flange which is defined in order to have the same total normal force in the gross flange subjected to the real transverse stress distribution as the effective flange subjected to a uniform stress equal to the maximum stress of the real transverse distribution.

This paper presents some aspects concerning the shear lag phenomenon and a design analysis taking into account the geometrical parameters such as the stiffeners thickness, flange width and the girder span for a steel deck of a road bridge.