Effect of Geometric Properties and Boundary Conditions on the Structural Behavior of Concrete Helicoid Shell Structures

Abstract

Helicoid shells, despite their architectural significance, remain underexplored in in the existing literature. While prior research has focused on global shape optimization . This study introduces a parametric study by investigating the influence of four key geometric parameters namely the inner radius r₁​, outer radius r₂​, one-loop height H, and obliqueness angle α on the total strain energy and displacement in the axis z of two concrete helicoid shell configurations. The study is carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics. The results demonstrate that structural performance is highly sensitive to geometric parameters. For the full-turn helicoid, the outer radius r_2​ governs the global performance, leading to the most efficient strain-energy reduction, while the inner radius r₁​ also plays a significant role by enhancing global stiffness. In the half-turn helicoid, both inner radius r₁​ and outer radius r₂ become the dominant parameters, producing the largest improvement in strain energy ​. The obliqueness angle α exhibits a secondary influence in the half-turn helicoid case, while the height H has a non-negligible effect in both cases.