We study the effects of mergers on the structural properties of disc-like systems by using Smooth Particle Hydrodynamical ( SPH ) numerical simulations in hierarchical clustering scenarios .
In order to assess the effects of mergers on the mass distributions we performed a bulge-disc decomposition of the projected surface density of the systems at different stages of the merger process .
We assumed an exponential law for the disc component and the Sérsic law for the bulges .
We found that simulated objects at z = 0 have bulge profiles with shape parameters n \approx 1 , consistent with observational results of spiral galaxies .
The complete sample of simulated objects at z = 0 and z > 0 shows that n takes values in the range n \approx 0.4 - 4 .
We found that secular evolution tends to produce exponential bulge profiles , while the fusion of baryonic cores tends to increase the n value and helps to generate the correlation between B / D and n .
We found no dependence on the relative mass of the colliding objects .
Our results suggest that mergers , through secular evolution and fusions , could produce the transformation of galactic objects along the Hubble sequence by driving a morphological loop that might also depend on the properties of the central galactic potential wells , which are also affected by mergers .