The influence of merging events on the disk component of spiral galaxies

We report on first results of a comprehensive study of interacting and merg ing processes between spiral galaxies and small satellites to investigate t he effects of such events on the disk component of spirals. Analysis of our newly obtained photometric data of about 125 edge-on galaxies in optical a nd in NIR shows that there are considerable differences between interacting and non-interacting galaxies concerning their absolute disk scale paramete rs as well as their ratios (h/z(0)). In comparison with normal spirals, the average heating factor perpendicular to the disk plane of mergers is about 1.5. The most striking feature of the distributions of (h/z(0)) for both n ormal galaxies and mergers, is the total lack of typical flat disk axis rat ios (i.e. that of late type ones) of(h/z(0)) > 6 for mergers.