What is slab?

What Does slab Mean

A slab is a smooth stone , of little thickness, that is used in the construction field . With the slabs is paved ground , develop roofs and coated walls , for example.

Slabs, therefore, are construction materials . Beyond their use in buildings, since ancient times they have been used to make different kinds of structures .
With small slabs, traps were often built to hunt rodents or birds. In this case, the stone was placed in an almost vertical position, forming an angle with the ground. To support it, a branch or a stick was used. Under the slab a bait was located to attract the animal that, when it touched the branch, caused the stone to fall, being crushed or, at least, trapped.

Slabs were also used to wash clothes . The garments were scrubbed with soap and water against the surface to remove dirt.
In the past, tombs used to be covered with slabs of great weight, as a cover for the sepulcher . On the stone it was common for the name of the deceased to be engraved along with their dates of birth and death.
A hot slab , meanwhile, is good for cooking. There is a cooking method that consists of placing the slab on the fire and then arranging the food on it, which is sometimes spread with oil or lard (butter). Even the slab can then be used as a plate.
The foundation slab , finally, is a plate of concrete ( concrete ) resting on a plot to distribute the load and the weight of a construction across the full surface.
In this context, a structural element is called a plate which, from a geometric point of view, can approximate another and work mainly in flexion. Unlike the sheet , the plate has a flat middle surface, while the first is curved (something that can be seen, for example, in a dome).
The concrete , on the other hand, is a composite material as was achieved by joining more than one to combine their properties and results impossible to obtain by using one. In this case, it is mainly a binder combined with additives, water and aggregates. It is used in the construction field.
The slab is a kind of shallow foundation that offers a very satisfactory result in areas of little homogeneity , since the engineers try to avoid the differential settlements , the displacements or movements of the parts of a building that occur when the surface is irregular.

Another area in which the foundation slab is very successful is land whose bearing capacity is very low. The bearing capacity is that of the ground to resist the loads applied to it.
There are slabs whose thickness is invariable, the simplest, while others have different thicknesses according to the arrangement of the columns and walls, the ribbed slabs .
The calculation of the foundation slab is similar to that of a flat roof, although it is necessary to reverse the direction of each stress and apply the axial and uniform loads that come from each part of the building. The beams (large beams) of the slabs must be inverted so that they are buried in the surface, so that there are no obstacles in their use but the result is a smooth space.
A foundation slab acts as a plate that is influenced by vertical forces on its underside that are proportional to settlement and ballast modulus (a quantity associated with surface stiffness).