May reinforced concrete wide beams be allowed in seismic-prone areas?

According to the Spanish National Annex to Eurocode 8, the use of reinforced concrete wide-beam frames is forbidden for medium and high seismicity. Previously, the Spanish NCSE-02 and Italian NTC codes established a cap to the behaviour factor considering its disadvantages: deficient transmission of forces to the column and lower stiffness, ductility, dissipation, joint resistance and column-to-beam hierarchy. Mediterranean trend is contrary to European and International codes, which allows the use of wide beams of controlled cross-section width and larger columns in order to provide enough lateral stiffness. The review of codes and experimental evidence suggests that the width limit provision is enough to provide proper transmission and dissipation, while two analytic studies show that the increase of overstrength and ductility due to the use of larger columns provides similar global seismic capacity to conventional deep-beam frames. Thus, wide-beam frames could be a feasible structural option in seismic-prone areas.