longitudinal shear of a beam with curved flange in elevation 1

[kww2008]

Any suggestions on how to calculate the horizontal shear at the concrete steel interface at a particular section of a simply supported composite beam with a curve bottom flange in elevation ? My first guess was to use the section properties at the section as if the beam is uniform but this may not be correct.

 

[graybeach]

Couldn't you calculate it at several locations, say 10th points?

 

[kww2008]

I did calculate it at several locations using the equation, horizontal shear flow in force/length = VQ/I, where V is the shear force, Q is the first moment of area of the transformed concrete about the centroidal axis, and I is the second moment of area of the composite section. This equation is applicable to members with a uniform section along its length. I suspect that it is not applicable to a member with a curved flange (either top or bottom) in elevation, but does not know how to calculate for such members.

 

[graybeach]

If this is a typical girder bridge that gets a bit deeper at the pier, I think you can just use VQ/I at the various sections. At least that is what I have done on several bridges of this type. If you have a very unusual special case, maybe you need to do FE analysis.