Information to provide in scheme design:

●     Thickness of slab

●     Thickness of load bearing walls that support slab

●     Distance between load bearing walls

●     Clear floor height

Reasons to use this slab type:

Capabilities

●     Uses partition walls as structural elements not columns, which makes structure more economical due to less materials used

●     Higher headroom are then produced from this wall type since space for beams are not needed

●     Good lateral action in both directions provided by core walls

●     Flat soffit of slabs reduces concrete spalling so not a lot of need for maintenance

●     No concern for the reduction of beam strengths since beams are not needed

●     Not a lot of maintenance cost needed

●     Suitable for irregular grids and structural shapes

●     Provides limits to deflection

●     Provides robustness

●     Accommodates slab openings for service routing

Construction

●     Uses standardized formworks, the simplest method of reinforcement placement, and shuttering

●     Repetition of component construction

Advantages over other slabs:

Wall Slab vs Ribbed Slab or Waffle Slab

●     Wall slabs use standardized formworks, the simplest method of reinforcement placement, and shuttering to reduce construction time and effort

●     More contractor experience in building wall slabs so not a lot of technical issues will occur

Wall Slab vs Flat Slab

●     More contractor experience in building wall slabs

●     Wall slabs accommodate more slab openings for installation of services and for floor to floor openings

●     Wall slabs offer minimum thicknesses that are suitable for large ceiling voids for service installation and routing

●     Wall slabs provide more lateral wind resistance due to its rigid walls

●     Walls provide better sound and vibration insulation than columns

●     Flat slabs need heavy reinforcement, which can increase material cost and congest reinforcement placement.

Wall Slab vs Beam Slab

●     Wall slabs provide higher headroom since space for beams are not needed.

●     Wall slabs provide more lateral wind resistance due to its rigid walls

●     It is more economical to use partition walls as structural elements.

●     Wall slabs use standardized formworks to reduce construction time and to increase simplicity of construction processes

●     In Beam Slabs, beam strengths will reduce due to penetrations through downstand beams for service installations and there will be clashes in reinforcement placements

●     Because of the beams in the Beam Slab structure, construction will be more complicated and time consuming because more reinforcement arrangement design and labor force would be needed.

Disadvantages

●     Construction is only inexpensive for regular spaced walls

●     Wall slabs are not flexible for large span concentrated loads

●     Structural walls are not as accommodating for service installations

●     Walls need to be a certain thickness for efficient reinforcement placement

●     The fixed layout for structural walls do not give a lot of flexibility for architectural design and planning purposes