Evaluation of structural capacity of triangular and hexagonal reinforced concrete free-form shells

Abstract This paper presents a study of the structural capacity of reinforced concrete free-form shells, with hexagonal and triangular plants supported on corners. Initially, it presents the computational models for free-form shells generation and the parameters used in a linear static analysis. From the results of this analysis, the conditions of minimum thickness in which the structural behavior of the shells agrees with the membrane theory of thin shells are defined. Then, these shells are submitted to nonlinear pushover analysis, considering the plasticity and the accumulation of damage in each load increase. To determine the capacity of these shells, the parametric analysis is performed with the variation of the mechanical properties and the directions of the application of the horizontal force, taking the structure to the failure point. The results present the elastic-plastic behavior of shell structures under the action of horizontal forces. Therefore, this study aims to broaden the knowledge on the performance of the free-form shells under the action of external horizontal loading, such as structures under seismic action.