Slab

A slab refers to a type of foundation system that provides both the support and the structural floor for a building or structure. It can be designed to distribute the loads from the superstructure, such as walls, columns, and other elements, over a wide area of the ground and/or insulation.

A slab serves as a structural component that resists vertical loads, including dead/permanent loads (weight of a structure or the building itself) and live loads (occupant loads, furniture, equipment, trucks, etc.). A slab can also help stabilize by transferring horizontal loads, such as wind, to the ground.

A slab is typically reinforced with steel bars or mesh, or fiber reinforcement to enhance its strength and resistance to cracking. The reinforcement helps to control shrinkage and thermal cracking and provides additional capacity to withstand loads and distribute them effectively.

When making a design of a slab with greenSlab, various considerations are analyzed:

• Slab thickness
• Joint spacing/field size
• Concrete type and quality
• Subbases (ground/soil and/or insulation)
• Anticipated loads:
  • Point loads, axle loads and quadruple loads at corners, edges and internal, as well as at joints (e.g. racking systems, trucks or cf. EN 1991-1-1)
  • Line loads at edges and in the middle (e.g. bearing walls)
  • Uniform loads (e.g. pallets or cf. EN 1991-1-1)
• Type, placement, and amount of reinforcement (steel mesh and/or fiber reinforcement)

Features

Based on these parameters, greenSlab includes:

• Static calculations to ensure sufficient bearing capacity and load distribution
• Shrinkage calculations to reduce cracking
• Thermal insulation calculations to accommodate heat transmission requirements
• Life-cycle assessment (LCA) and CO₂ calculations
• Autogenerated documentation