Flat slab building systems are utilized extensively for construction of apartments, hotels and office buildings. Flat slab construction is common throughout the USA and indeed much of the World.The advantages of a flat-slab floor system are numerous. The simplicity of formwork and resulting speed of construction makes for a short and economical construction period. Low floor to floor heights (generally 2.5 to 3 meters) reduce the total building height, thus reducing lateral loads, cost of building cladding, cost of vertical mechanical and electrical lines, and air conditioning/heating costs.

The economy of this type of construction is further enhanced by utilizing the simplest form of flat slab, namely a flat plate system with no variations in slab depth. A critical design criterion for flat plates is the punching shear strength of the slab at the slab-column connections. To avoid adding drop panels or beams to increase the shear capacity of the slab, various types of shear reinforcement can be used in the slab around the connection. Some of the more convenient types of shear reinforcement have never been evaluated under seismic loading conditions.