Ribbed / waffle slab

History
The idea of two-way joist system with holes in the bottom is refer back to about 2500
years ago in Achaemenid period. According to the archaeologists' analysis,
orthogonal wood beams have been used in the roof of Perspolis. This type of slabs
recently are known as coffer slabs which is the origin of waffle slabs.

DEFINITION
The waffle slab or ribbed slab is a structural component that is plain at its top and
has a grid-like system on its lower surface.

According to engineer Florentino Regalado, ‘the waffle slab belongs to the family of
reinforced concrete slabs that are non-homogeneous, lightened, and reinforced in
two orthogonal directions, forming a ribbed plate’.

Ribbed or waffle slab is a slab system which consists of series of parallel reinforced
concrete T beams framing into reinforced concrete girders. The slab is the flange of
the beam and the extended part is the web. The extended part is known as ribs. The
spacing between the ribs should be in general 20-30 inch. The ribs are tapered in
cross-section in its lower part.

APPEARANCE
The top of a waffle slab is generally smooth, like a traditional building surface, but
the underside has a shape reminiscent of a waffle.

• Straight lines run the entire width and length of the slab, generally

• raised several inches from the surface.

• These ridges form the namesake square pockets of the entire length and width of
the slab

WHERE THIS SYSTEM IS USED

Waffle slab can be used as both ceiling and floor slab. They are used in the areas
where less number of columns are

• provided, i.e. it is basically used in th areas which has huge spans.

 • Waffle slab is not used in typical construction projects. They are used for
specialized projects that involve clean rooms, spaces requiring seclusion from low
frequency vibration or those needing low floor deflections.

• The concrete waffle slab is often used for industrial and commercial buildings while
wood and metal waffle slabs are used in many other construction sites.

• This form of construction is used in airports, parking garages, commercial and

industrial buildings, bridges, residences and other structures requiring extra stability.

• The main purpose of employing this technology is for its strong foundation
characteristics of crack and sagging resistance. Waffle slab also holds a greater
amount of load compared with conventional concrete slabs.

Types of Waffle Slab:

1.One-way Ribbed Slab System:

The one-way joist flooring slab consists of a sequence of small, reinforced concrete
T beams which might be connected with girders carried by the building column.

T beams are known as joists that are formed by installing steel panes at a constant
spacing.

Concrete is cast between those spacing to make those ribs.

2.Two-way Ribbed Slab System (Waffle System):

The system was designed to reduce the load of concrete slab.

The dome-shaped type of the matrix, surrounded by orthogonal ribbing forms a two-
way configuration for large-spanning slabs.

The voids between all the domes reduce the dead load, as this width results in a
portion of the slab being less than the flat slab.
FEATURE(S)-

Ribbed and waffle slabs provide a lighter and stiffer slab than an equivalent flat slab,
reducing the extent of foundations. They provide a very good form of construction
where slab vibration is an issue, such as laboratories and hospitals.

This type of slab is able, very adequately, to support distributed and point vertical
actions, and to a lesser extent also horizontal actions. They are bi-directional or two-
way slabs, because of the two orthogonal directions of their reinforcement, and slab
bending can be broken down and analysed according to those two reinforcement
directions

 they are used on flat sites.

 they are wholly above ground.
 no beam excavation is required.
 no controlled or rolled fill is used.
 cardboard slab panel/void formers are used.
 slab panels are on 1 metre grids (approximately)
 trench mesh or individual bars can be used.
 slab thickness is 85 mm-100
 internal beams are 110-200mm wide
 There is minimal concrete volume
 No beam down drag from clay (above ground slab) occurs
 Shrinkage of slab is lower than stiffened rafts and footing slabs
 They use 30% less concrete than stiffened raft
 They use 20 less steel than stiffened raft

Benefits

 Flexible
 Relatively light, therefore less foundation costs and longer spans are
economic
 Speed of construction
 Fairly slim floor depths
 Robustness
 Excellent vibration control
 Thermal mass
 Good for services integration
 Durable finishes
 Fire resistance

 Waffle slabs are used for larger span slabs or floors and used when there is
limited requirement for number of columns.
  The load carrying capacity of waffle slab is greater than the other types of
slabs.
 They provide good structural stability along with aesthetic appearance.
Hence, it is constructed for airports, hospitals, temples, churches etc.
 The waffle slab can be made of concrete or wood or steel among those
concrete waffle slab is preferred for commercial buildings and other two are
preferred for garages, decorative halls etc.
 It has good vibration control capacity because of two directional
reinforcements. So, it is useful for public buildings to control vibrations created
by movements of crowd.
 Waffle slabs are lightweight and requires less amount of concrete, hence it is
economical.
 Construction of waffle slab is easy and quick with good supervision.
 Concrete and steel volume required is small, hence, light framework is
enough for waffle slab.
 Several services like lighting, plumbing pipes, electrical wiring, air
conditioning, insulation materials etc. can be provided within the depth of
waffle slab by providing holes in the waffle bottom surface. This system is
called as Holedeck.

Drawbacks of Waffle Slab

 Formwork tools required are very costly because of large quantity requirement
of pods and some special tools.
 The floor height should be more hence number of floors are reduced.
 The services provided in the waffle arrangement without proper maintenance
may causes damages to the slab.
 Skilled workers are required during its construction.
 They are not suitable for sloped areas. If there is slope area, the area must be
leveled with filling or by excavating. For soil filling, good soil should be used.
 They are not suitable against high winds or cyclonic areas because of their
light weight.

Advantages of Ribbed and Waffle Slabs

1. In this type of slab, the tension stress is eliminated in the tension side of the
slab. The strength of concrete in tension is very small and so elimination of
much of the tension concrete is done by the use of pan forms.
 2. Economical where the live loads are fairly small such as apartment houses,
hotels. 
3. Long slab spans can be constructed through ribbed and waffle Slabs. In many
cases, long spans are desirable in the building. Ribbed or waffle slabs are an
easy solution for this purpose. 
4. Provide architectural advantages. All the Electrical appliances can be installed
easily in the gap of the ribs which can be architecturally aesthetic. 
5. Slab thickness of ribbed or waffle slabs is less than other slab systems.
Therefore the weight of slab is reduced. This saving of weight can change in
structural characteristic.
6. Lighter and stiffer slab than an equivalent flat slab. 
7. Reducing the extent of foundations by reducing the ultimate load. 
8. They provide a very good form where slab vibration is a viable issue.

Disadvantages of Ribbed and Waffle Slabs

1. Not suitable where the live loads are huge as heavy manufacturing buildings,
warehouses.
2. The thickness of the slab is controlled as the requirement of fire resistance. 
3. Formwork cost is high. 
4. Sometimes difficult to install the electric equipment.

Formwork tools required in the construction of waffle slab are:

 Waffle pods
 Horizontal supports
 Vertical supports
 Wall connectors
 Cube junctions
 Hole plates
 Clits
 Steel bars

Waffle Slab Construction Procedure

The construction of waffle slabs can be done by three ways as follows.

 In-situ
 Precast
 Prefabricated
In-situ waffle slabs are constructed by pouring concrete in the site or field with proper
arrangements. In case of precast waffle slab, slab panels are casted somewhere and
they are joined together with proper reinforcement and concrete is filled.

The third case, prefabricated waffle slab is costliest than the other two methods. In
this case, reinforcement is provided in the slab panels while casting with some
tension. Hence, they do not need internal reinforcement in the site.

Horizontal support and vertical supports are arranged first and they are fixed in
position by the connectors. At the edges wall connectors are used to provide
connection between wall and slab. The horizontal beam supports are connected by
small beam connectors which form square like shape in which pods are going to be
placed.

The pods are generally made of plastic and they are available in different sizes and
different shapes. Size selection of pod depend upon the requirement and span
length. For longer span large number of pods are required. Same size should be
used for one complete slab.

Similarly beam connectors and cube junctions are also available in different sizes
based on the suitability of pod sizes.

Cube junctions are used to fix the corners of pods with the frame work. After fixing
the formwork, reinforcement is placed in the two directions of the slab and then
concrete is poured in the gaps which are called as ribs after hardening.

Thin concrete slab is provided on the top and after its hardening pods and
frameworks are removed from the bottom. Thus, the waffle like shape appears at the
bottom surface.
Design

 The design of the waffle slab depends upon the total area on which the
waffle slab is required.
 The thickness of the waffle slab is generally range from 80 mm to 100
mm.
 The overall depth of the waffle slab is limited to 300 mm to 600 mm.
 The width of the beam in the waffle slab ranges from 100 mm to 200
mm.
 The spacing between two consecutive ribs ranges from 600 mm to 1500
mm.
 Waffle slabs can be reinforced with the rebar for additional strength.
 The Reinforcement is provided in the waffle slab is provided in the form
of a mesh or individual bars.
 The reinforcement in the waffle slab is two-directional.
 The main horizontal beams are connected by the small beams which
form the grid-like pattern.

 The construction of a waffle slab is generally suitable for flat areas.

 The Volume of concrete which is used in the waffle slab is less as
compared to other types of slabs.
 Waffle slabs have good shrinkage resistance.
 Waffle slab required very less amount of steel and concrete
as compared to other types of slabs.
 Waffle slabs are the Structural component which is plain from the top
and has a grid-like pattern at the bottom side.
 Waffle slabs can be used for both constructions of the floor slab as
well as ceiling slabs.
 A flat slab cannot be constructed for a longer span and also get
cracked.
 Waffle slabs are the special type of slab which is mainly constructed for
the longer span and has a crack and sagging resistance.
Material Properties
Strength
Reinforced concrete has very good strength in tension as well as compression. This
makes concrete a desired construction material.
Economical
Concrete constituents are widely available worldwide and inexpensive. Similarly, the
production cost of concrete is very low. There is an overall economy by using
reinforced concrete because its maintenance cost is low due to the long-lasting
nature of reinforced concrete.
Reinforced concrete durability, resilience, low maintenance requirements and energy
efficiency, concrete structures reduce operating costs related to operational energy
consumption, maintenance, and rebuilding following disasters.
Versatility
Concrete can be placed into various shapes of shuttering or formwork configurations
to form desired shapes, form, surface, texture, and sizes at construction site. This is
because fresh concrete is flowable and is in liquid state. Therefore, it is more
suitable for architectural requirements.
Durability
Due to low permeability, concrete can resist chemicals dissolved in water such as
sulfates, chloride, and carbon dioxide, which may cause corrosion in concrete,
without serious deterioration.
Fire Resistance
 The nature of concrete does not allow it to catch fire or burn. It can withstand heat
for 2–6 hours enabling sufficient time for rescue operations in case of fire.
Reinforced concrete buildings are more fire-resistant than other commonly used
construction materials like steel and wood. It is suitable to fireproof steel and is used
in high-temperature and blast applications.
Analysis of two- way ribbed and waffle slabs with hidden beams Ibrahim Mohammad
Arman Lecturer at An- Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
ibr_moh@najah.edu doi:
10.6088/ijcser.201304010033
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on analysis of two-way ribbed and waffle slabs with hidden
beams. There are many methods that are used to analyse two-way slabs and the
precision of these methods vary depending on method assumptions. In this study,
the ACI direct design method is used as a manual or hand method of calculation and
the solution will be compared with the analysis results of the three-dimensional
structural model done by the computer program Sap2000. The moments in beams,
slab column strip and slab middle strip will be determined. It will be illustrated that
the distribution of moments in two-way slabs with hidden beams likes the distribution
of moments in slabs without beams as the stiffness of the hidden beams is small. It
is recommended that the use of three-dimensional modelling by computer software
is the best solution for moment’s determination and distribution.

Keywords: SAP2000, slab, two-way, ribbed, waffle, direct design method, beams .