EFFECT OF GEOMETRIC TRANSFORMATION ON THE MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS IN RELATED LOW-RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31471/1993-9868-2026-2(46)-183-202Keywords:
geometric transformation; low-rise building; numerical modeling; SAPFIR-3D; LIRA-FEM; load-bearing walls; force redistributionAbstract
Abstract.
This study investigates the effect of spatial and layout transformation on the mechanical behavior of the structural systems of two related low-rise residential buildings. The buildings are considered as the baseline and geometrically expanded variants of a common architectural and structural concept. Three-dimensional physical and geometric models of both buildings were developed in the SAPFIR-3D building information modeling environ-ment and subsequently converted into finite element models using the LIRA-FEM software package. Consistent principles of discretization, design load combination generation, and boundary condition modeling were applied to both variants, while soil–structure interaction was represented using the two-parameter Winkler–Pasternak foundation model. The comparative analysis was performed using absolute, relative, and specific indicators of geometric characteristics, material intensity, and mechanical response, together with an assessment of the structural behavior of selected load-bearing walls within the common geometric core. A 72.0% increase in the calculated floor area is accompanied by an almost proportional increase in the modeled building volume of 73.3%, whereas the mass of load-bearing structures increases at a higher rate of 91.8%. The mechanical response of the structural system does not follow simple proportional scaling. Specifically, the maximum absolute vertical displacement increases by 45.5%, the integrated reaction of the most heavily loaded load-bearing wall by 39.1%, and the first natural period of vibration by only 16.2%. Local analysis of the common geometric core revealed opposing trends in the redistribution of internal force resultants. The membrane force increases by 47.2% in the wall adjacent to the geometrically expanded portion, decreases by 12.2% in an internal wall of the core, and changes by only 5.3% in a more distant wall. The results demonstrate that the geometric expansion of a related building produces non-proportional and locally opposing changes in mechanical response due to changes in the spatial distribution of stiffness and load-transfer paths. The proposed approach can be applied to the design and evaluation of alternative building configurations to quantitatively assess the effects of spatial and layout transfor-mations on material intensity, deformability, and internal force distribution.
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