Behavioral Investigation of Reinforced Concrete T-Beams with Distributed Reinforcement in the Tension Flange

Rafaa M Abbas,Wesal A Fadala,M Karkush,D Choudhury,M Fattah

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202131803010

Abstract

Current design codes and specifications allow for part of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width when the T-beams' flanges are in tension. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the reinforced concrete flanged section's flexural behavior when reinforcement in the tension flange is laterally distributed. To achieve the goals of the study, numerical analysis using the finite element method was conducted on discretized flanged beam models validated via experimentally tested T-beam specimen. Parametric study was performed to investigate the effect of different parameters on the T-beams flexural behavior. The study revealed that a significant reduction in the beam flexural strength with increasing deflection is encountered as a sizable percentage of reinforcement is distributed over the wider flange width. The study recommended that not more than 33% of the tension reinforcement may be distributed over an effective flange width not wider than ℓn/10. This result confirms and agrees well the ACI 318 limit on the effective width to be less than ℓn/10.

Highlights

T-beams and L-beams are the most commonly used flanged sections in conventional construction and moment-resisting frames
These results indicated that the deflection values obtained experimentally were larger than those using the finite element model, demonstrating that the experimental specimen possesses higher ductility at failure than did the FE model for the same T-beam
The flexural strength and the deflection of reinforced concrete T-beam with the flange in tension have been investigated when part of the bonded flexural reinforcement was distributed over an effective flange width

Summary

Introduction

T-beams and L-beams are the most commonly used flanged sections in conventional construction and moment-resisting frames. Because slabs are cast monolithically with the beam’s web, additional stiffness or strength is added to the rectangular beam section from the slab's participation [1]. These beams are composed of two rectangular sections, the vertical web section and the horizontal flange. The study showed that the effect of the flanges is accounted for by the proposed model. Cladera et al [4] extended shear–flexural strength model previously developed by the authors to predict the strength of rectangular slender reinforced concrete beams with or without web reinforcement to account for the cases of T and I shape beams. Comparison of the results of the proposed equations with tension reinforcement with the other studies revealed that current study equations have a close agreement with test results

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion