The minor-axis shear strength of I-shaped members and channel flanges is the shear yield strength if flange slenderness, for I-shapes or for channels, does not exceed the limit , or the shear buckling strength, otherwise. Because shear post-buckling strength is not included for these cases due to lack of experimental verification, the shear buckling coefficient, , from Section G2.2 is used. The plate buckling coefficient, , is 1.2 due to the presence of a free edge.
The maximum plate slenderness of all rolled shapes is . The lower bound of , computed using , is
The maximum plate slenderness does not exceed the lower bound of the yielding limit; therefore, , except for built-up shapes with very slender flanges.