Slab

Slab, In architecture, a flat, monolithic piece of stone or concrete used for a floor or roof. There are various forms of reinforced-concrete slabs: one-way slabs cast with supporting beams, ribbed slabs cast with series of joists, two-way ribbed slabs (known as waffle slabs), flat plates reinforced in two or more directions without beams or girders, and flat slabs thickened at column supports with drop panels and/or column capitals. A waffle slab supports loads equally well along both axes and is thus most efficiently used to cover square modules.

Learn More in these related articles:

...formed with prefabricated sheet-metal forms. A two-way version of pan joists, called the waffle slab, uses prefabricated hollow sheet-metal domes to create a grid pattern of voids in a solid floor slab, saving material without reducing the slab’s strength. The simplest and most economical floor system is the flat plate, where a plain floor slab about 20 centimetres (eight inches) thick rests...