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.

When the flange of a reinforced concrete spandrel beam is in tension, current design codes and specifications enable a portion of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width. The flexural behavior of the RC L-shaped spandrel beam when reinforcement is laterally displaced in the tension flange is investigated experimentally and numerically in this work. Numerical analysis utilizing the finite element method is performed on discretized flanged beam models validated using experimentally verified L-shaped beam specimens to achieve study objectives. A parametric study was carried out to evaluate the influence of various factors on the beam’s flexure behavior. Results showed that as the percentage of the reinforcement distributed has increased over a greater width of the flange, a considerable drop in beam flexure strength was observed with excessive deflection. According to the study, not more than 33% of the web tension reinforcement might be distributed over an effective flange width less than ln/10, including the web region, as recommended by the ACI318-14.