An Improved Method for Predicting Shear Stress in Rectangular Shafts Based on Optimization Polynomials

This paper presents several new approximations for the coefficients associated with the shear stresses in rectangular shafts. The new results are developed using an optimization approach based on a polynomial merit function to predict the maximum shear stress along the center of the long side of the cross section. The results are shown to be more accurate than existing approximate methods that are now in the literature.