RETROFIT OF SEMI-RIGIDLY CONNECTED STEEL FRAME WITH FIBER-REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITE PANELS

摘要

This paper addresses the design and testing of an energy dissipating polymer matrix composite (PMC) infill walls developed for seismic retrofit. The composite infill wall system presented in this paper is comprised of two fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates with an infill of a vinyl sheet foam. At the interface between the laminates, visco-elastic honeycomb is used to dissipate energy and improve the damping characteristics of the structure. Analytical and experimental studies for a steel frame retrofitted by a PMC infill wall were performed to explore the effectiveness of the retrofitting strategy, and to examine the behavior of PMC infill wall system when subjected to mono-tonic and cyclic loading.