Simplification of least-work solution to an empirical method for prediction of shear lag stress in steel box moment connections with internal diaphragms.

In this paper, a method called "least-work solution" was empirically simplified to evaluate shear lag stress in the steel box moment connections with internal diaphragms in order to serve for the preliminary design. This approach considered the effects of column flange flexibility and depth of the beam web, and their relations on the stress distribution. The stress equations were manually obtained with a complicated form. Therefore, a simplified method was proposed to facilitate the calculation procedure. The results showed that least-work solution could be simplified to provide valid stress distribution and can thus be authenticated by FEM and existing test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]