Cantilever beam on shear connection. Maintenance insisting it works cos they use it 2

[delagina]

I have a 4' cantilever beam connecting to an existing beam. Maintenance said to use a detail connection that they've used many times in the past. It's a shear connection. How do I go about this? Hard to argue with something that is working for many years.

 

[cal91]

Funny, I just reviewed a project that had the exact same situation. Short cantilever beam with a single plate shear tab. The entire roof structure was supported by 3X3X1/4 posts which were supported on the end of the cantilever beams.

After analyzing the connection, the shear tab's strong axis bending was only about 10% over stressed (plate yielding - didn't check LTB). It was the tab's weak axis bending (570% capacity) and torsion (940% capacity) from lateral loading that completely shot it out of the water.