Effect of Flange Width on Flexural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete T-Beam

Reinforced concrete T-section beam is widely used in building and bridge construction. In most cases, the reinforced concrete T-section may be monolithic which implies that part of the slab close to the beam section help in resisting the flexural load. Understanding the effect of flange width of beam in such monolithic section is very crucial in designing effective and efficient structure. This study presents a numerical study of the effect of flange width on the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete T-section beam. Three different flange width which include 200, 400 and 600mm were considered in this study. The result shows that stiffness of the beam increases with increase in flange width. The initial cracking load is influence by the flange width. The wider the flange width, the higher the cracking load. The result in terms of mid-span deflection and cracking shows no appreciable difference in the different flange width considered in this study. Finally, the findings show that behavior of reinforced concrete T-section beam in terms of cracking and failure load, deflection, reinforcement strain and crack pattern can be accurately simulated using LS DYNA. Keywords: Reinforced Concrete T-section beam, Flange width, Cracking load, LS DYN