Abstract
Steel plate or FRP materials have been typically used for the seismic retrofit of civil infrastructures. In order to overcome the limitation of each retrofitting material, a composite material, which takes advantages from both metal and fiber polymer materials, has been developed. In the study herein, the composite retrofitting material consists of metal part(steel or aluminum) and FRP sheet part(glass or carbon fiber). The metal part can enhance the ductility and the FRP part the ultimate strength. As a preliminary study to investigate the fundamental mechanical characteristics of the metal-FRP laminated composite material this study performed the tensile test with various experimental variables including the number, the angle and the combination of FRP laminates. From the test results, both aluminum and steel-FRP laminate composite material showed increased fracture toughness. However, the angle and the kind of fibers should be carefully considered in conjunction with the expected loading conditions. In general, steel-FRP laminate composite showed better tensile performance in regards to the seismic retrofit purposes.
