Influence of Atmospheric Humidity on the Critical Buckling Load of Reinforced Concrete Columns

In this paper, an evaluation of the influence of atmospheric humidity on the critical buckling load of reinforced concrete columns is performed. A particular case consisting of a real, extremely slender reinforced concrete pole was taken for the study. The chosen mathematical procedure for calculating the critical load is based on the Mechanics of Deformable Solids due to variations of structure vibration frequency over time. The rheological behavior of concrete related to creep and shrinkage, which illustrates the time-dependent aspect of the problem, was also considered in the analysis following normative recommendations from the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT). In order to evaluate value changes of critical buckling loads, different time instants after loading the structure as well as different relative humidity from 0% to 100%, in 10% increments were considered. According to the selected criteria, it was possible to verify that a higher atmospheric humidity decreases the water transport from the interior out to the exterior surfaces of concrete, hence positively influencing structure stiffness. Therefore, the lowest reduction on critical buckling was 41.9% at 100% relative atmospheric humidity, versus the highest 60.7% at 0% relative humidity. A period of 7500 days after loading the structure was considered in the analysis.