Shear lag effect in tension flange of RC walls with flanged sections

A new method for considering the shear lag effect in the flange of reinforced concrete (RC) walls with flanged sections is proposed. The method is developed based on the truss analogy for the cracked flange segment in tension. Comparisons with the experimental data reveal that the proposed method can predict the influence of the shear lag effect in the tested RC structural walls with flanged sections with greater accuracy as compared to the conventional method of effective flange width. Furthermore, parametric studies were performed based on nonlinear finite element models for further investigation of the shear lag effect and accuracy of the proposed method. The parametric studies show that the influences of the height and the length of the wall and the distribution of longitudinal reinforcement were reasonably captured by the proposed method when the maximum tensile strain in the flange was close to the yielding strain of the longitudinal reinforcing bars.