About the Reinforced Concrete Concept

Reinforced Concrete Concept is a preliminary design tool that provides design and construction teams with fast access to material and cost estimates for the most common concrete floor systems. The ability of CRSI'S Concept to offer quick comparisons early in conceptual design helps keep reinforced concrete systems “in the mix” and underscores the benefits of reinforced concrete. Users create a login and can save their "concepts" upon completion for later use. They also have the option of comparing concepts in order to perform cost summaries and comparisons.

Flat Plate

Flat plates are the most common type of two-way slab system. It is commonly used in multi-story construction such as hotels, offices and apartment buildings. The slab has uniform thickness without beams and requires simple formwork to construct.

 

Flat Slab

A flat slab is similar to flat plate with drop panels at the columns to increase the two-way shear capacity as compared to a flat plate. For purposes of design a drop panel is part of the slab system.

 

Wide Module-Pan System

Wide-module joist systems (also referred to as “skip-joist” or pan systems) are defined as joist systems with a clear spacing between the ribs of more than 30 inches. Since this module exceeds the rib spacing limit for standard joist construction (Section 8.11.3-ACI 318), wide module joists become repetitive “T” beams and are subject to design requirements for such members.

 

Waffle Slab

Waffle slab consists of rows of concrete joists at right angles to each other. The joists are commonly built by using standard square domes. The domes are omitted around the columns to form solid heads acting as drop panels to increase two-way shear resistance. Advantages include longer spans and heavier live load capacity without drop panels or beams with a very stiff floor desirable to control vibrations.

 

One-way Slab and Beam

The floor loads are transferred to the beams, which are then transferred to the columns thus making it ideal for heavy load areas. It is a common system for parking structures, elevator and stair areas.

 

Voided Slab

The concept of the voided slab is simple in that concrete mass is removed from the areas in the slab where it is not needed to resist load and as a result of the reduced dead load, voided slabs can span further. Because of this efficiency, this system can withstand an increased load capacity, create larger spans without beams and larger open floor areas and offer improved earthquake performance.