Abstract:Neither the Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic nor the steel plate strengthening concrete components shows sufficiency in improving the structures' seismic behaviors independently, while they complement each other by the way of composite strengthening. Six reinforced concrete beams, five of which are strengthened, were comparatively and experimentally tested under low frequency cyclic load to investigate their mechanical performances such as characteristic of resilience, hysteretic curve, seismic behaviors, skeleton curve, degeneration of rigidity and loading capacity. It is indicated that the way of composite strengthening can boost the beams′ ultimate bearing capacity, ductility and deformability capacity effectively, and it can delay rigidity degeneration and improve the seismic behaviors of the beams. Also, the CFRP and steel plate can work together very well.