What Does
Shear Mean?
Shear refers to a type of material strain experienced in a structure due to the lateral shifting of its inter-granular plates relative to each other. The degree of tolerable shear stress of a metal is a strong indicator of the metal's resistance to wear and degradation.
Shear may also refer to a type of force load that is applied to produce material failure along a parallel plane. It is observed as a sliding and twisting wear phenomenon.
Corrosionpedia Explains Shear
Shear is a type of stress and can be a major cause of corrosion damage, such as cracking and pitting. This is due to the simultaneous effects of an aggressive environment and tensile manipulations. With the influences of varying levels of stress, cracks and other forms of damage can be induced, which can lead to more severe damage.
In certain metals a shearing motion rapidly localizes into a slender band, known as a shear band. This facilitates all the sliding to concentrate within the band while surface areas of the metal on either side of the band glide against one another. A unique occurrence of shear localization occurs in brittle materials when they fracture along a narrow band.