Structures Practise Paper Question

[tomg136]

The problem has been highlighted in the attached picture, it's an old exam paper question and I've been trying to do it in preparation for a university exam.



I am confident in modelling the structure (into both shear panels and edge members), and confident that I am able to identify both the shear flow around each shear panel and the normal stresses in the edge members. I also believe the maximum end load stress equation is:

Stress = (M.Y)/ Ixx = (force*length)/(depth_of_beam*contact_area)

Shear stress within the panels = shear_flow/ thickness


The issue I'm having is with the clamps on the panels, highlighted in the bottom right hand corner of the page. Although I believe I understand why the section P-P clamp is there, I can't decide if the Q-Q clamp is relevant to the question.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[pongo38]

My suggestion is that HK is a stiffener (Unusually called a clamp in this question) that encourages the shear tension field to be divided between GK and HJ. If it were not there, the tension field for shear would go from G to J. That would produce a weaker shear resistance. This answer is about shear buckling, rather than shear flow.