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Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Structures and Loads

Slab

Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples

/slæb/nounCore term

In civil engineering & construction, slab means: A flat, horizontal concrete element that forms a floor or a roof. It carries the loads on its surface and passes them to beams, walls or columns.

In Turkish: döşeme, plak

How it is used

Heard daily on building sites: slabs are poured, cured and stripped, and progress is often reported slab by slab. Common types are the flat slab (no beams), one-way and two-way slabs, and the slab on grade, which sits directly on the ground.

Example sentences

  1. The third-floor slab is poured; we'll start the columns for the fourth floor on Monday.

  2. There's a crack in the ground-floor slab near the loading bay.

Common collocations

  • pour a slab
  • flat slab
  • slab thickness
  • ground-floor slab
  • slab on grade
  • beamA horizontal structural member that carries loads across an opening and passes them to the columns or walls at its ends. It works mainly in bending.
  • columnA vertical structural member that collects loads from the beams and slabs above and carries them down to the foundations.
  • pourTo place fresh concrete into formwork or an excavation from a truck, pump or skip. As a noun, a pour is one continuous concreting operation.
  • formworkA temporary mould, usually made of timber, plywood or steel, that holds fresh concrete in the required shape until it is strong enough to support itself.
  • deflectionThe amount a beam, slab or other member bends or moves under load, measured as a distance, usually at the middle of the span.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Structures and Loads

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