Effective flange width of simply supported box girder under uniform load

A new method for the determination of effective flange width under uniform load on simply supported box girder bridges considering shear lag effect is proposed in this paper. Based on the Symplectic Elasticity method, the flange slab of the box girder is simplified into a plane stress plate. Using equilibrium conditions of the plates, the Hamilton dual equations for top plate element is established. The analytical formulas of each plate element considering shear lag effect are derived. The closed polynomial effective width expression of flange slab under uniform load on the whole span length has been obtained. Through examples using the finite element method, the results obtained by the proposed method are examined and the accuracy of the proposed method is verified.