Short-term Deformation Model based on Surrounding Relative Humidity of Concrete Plate under Humid Tropical Weather

Abstract

This paper presents the deformation model based on surrounding relative humidity on one full scale concrete plate with compressive strength of 60MPa in which the concrete plate was placed on several pedestals. This research was conducted in Indonesia, a country with humid tropical weather with dry-wet conditions. A plate specimen measuring 3.00m × 1.60m × 0.15m was used for the experiment. The load was applied at the age of 14 days. The concrete plate behaviour was obtained by using four embedded vibrating wire strain gauges. The specimen was observed between 7 to 97 days of period. As a result, deformation model is similar to surrounding relative humidity reflection model. The result of Omar et al., 2008 research in Malaysia also shows a resemblance to the reflection of surrounding relative humidity (SRH) model. The deformation or shrinkage model for high performance concrete plate is εt= -SRHt.10 -5 + SRHinitial.10 -5 . f + C. "f" is a factor of initial surrounding relative humidity, C is the factor related to the position, and surface area. Meanwhile, the average error in maximum deformation position is about 26.8%. A large difference indicates that the level of difficulty for humidity enter the pore network.