In flat slabs there is considerable congestion of reinforcement over columns supports. In this area apart from flexural reinforcement in two directions at the top and the bottom faces, there is also the likelyhood of shear reinforcement. From the construction point of view, it is useful to reduce this congestion. In the design of continuous beams, congestion is generally reduced by redistributing the support moments without affecting equilibrium. The object of the present paper is to explore one way of doing this in the case of flat slabs. Using the procedure developed, a model of the local area around the column region is designed and made in reinforced concrete. The model is tested and the observed behaviour is compared with the predictions of a nonlinear finite element analysis. The adopted procedure is shown to be viable from the serviceability and ultimate limit state point of view. Good agreement was obtained between predicted and experimental measurements.

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