AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF BUILDING STRUCTURES

In this paper we present a preliminary of a model concerning the behav iour of building structures. The work focuses on the analogy of buildi ng structures and cellular materials, and assumes that building struct ures are macroscopic versions of cellular materials. This assumption i s then exploited using the SAND program and it is shown that for an op en cell building structure, (E/E(s)) = (0.1681 +/- 0.5717)(rho/rho(s)) (1.7319 +/- 0.90169), where (E/E(s)) is the relative elastic modulus o f the building structure and (rho/rho(s)) is the relative density of t he building. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.