Slab on Ground

SLABS offers three alternative methods to model raft slabs and slabs-on-ground:

 

• Winkler Model with Uniform Spring Constant
• Winkler Model with Spring Constant Related to Slab Panel Types
• Soil-Structure Interaction, Liner Elastic Half-Space

 

Winkler Method
The soil stiffness represents the elastic properties of the soil in the vertical direction. SLABS assumes that the lateral movement of the slab is constrained. The Soil Stiffness parameter has the same meaning as to the Coefficient of Sub Grade Reaction. That is an equivalent ‘area’ spring at each nodal point of the finite element mesh. 

 

Soil-Structure Interaction
This method considers the soil as a linear-elastic half-space. The slab is a plate in bending and the soil is a 3D half-space. The slab and the 3D half-space ‘work’ together as a combined system, which includes a soil-structure interaction effect. SLABS allows the user to consider properly the interaction between the slab and the soil. This method is considered to be the most appropriate analytical approach for the evaluation of slab-on-ground settlements and its effect on the structure.

 

See example 1

example 2