PROPERTIES IN SHEAR

Shear stress plays an important role in the failure of

ductile materials (which resist to normal stress by
undergoing large plastic deformations, but fails by
rupturing under shear stress. )
However, the shear tests have not met wide
acceptance and use that have been given to tension
test.
This unpopularity may largely be due to the fact that
an idea about the shear properties of a material can
often be obtained from the tensile properties (eg.
Ssy=~0.5Sy).
Consequently the shear test are usually conducted to
obtain a measure of shear strength for specific
applications.

PROPERTIES IN SHEAR

Types of Shear Stresses

There are two main types of shear categorized due to

the loadings.
One is the direct or transverse shear stress and
the other is the pure or torsional shear.
(a)Direct Shear Stress (rivets & beams are examples)
(b)Torsional Shear Stress (Shafts are subjected to
pure torsion)

Differences between shear

tests
Direct or transverse shear tests are
usually employed to obtain a shear
strength (Ssy or Ssu) for specific
applications
Whereas torsion test is usually
employed to evaluate the shear
behaviour and properties of a material
(similar to the tensile test of materials)

Properties in direct shear

Direct shear tets is employed in various ways as
seen in figure.
The specimen is usually clamped in a fixture and
a shearing force F is applied through a shear tool
and the max. Load F is determined.

3 types of direct shear

tests are:
Single shear test (a)
Double shear test
(b)and
Punch shear test (c)

 In direct shear tests, usually the max load F

(required to shear the test specimen) is
determined
The same maximum load is then converted to
the max. direct shear stress (ultimate strength
in shear ) via suitable equation.
This test however does not provide reliable
information for the properties (such as yield,
stiffness, resilience etc) of material in shear.
This test provides only the ultimate strength of
material in shear. Even this property is not
always reliable due to factors such as:
Hardness, sharpness and correct setting of shearing
tools
Bending stresses and friction between the parts
etc

Torsion Test
Torsion tests are done on special type of machines
which have been developed especially for this
purpose.
These tests are carried out applying a given
twisting moment to one end of a specimen while
measuring the deformation as angular
displacement at the other end.

The torsion test is not used in material

specification to the same extent as the
tension test.
The main reason for lack of popularity of
torsion tests arises from the fact that no
uniform shear stress can be generated
within the material.

Nevertheless, the torsion test is still usefull in

determination of material properties such as
Shear modulus of elasticity G

(*)

torsional yield strength Ssy(**) and

shear modulus of rupture Su(***).

G (Modulus of Rigidity), (Poissons

Ratio)

 Torsion tests can be also

carried out on full sized
engineering
components
themselves such as shafts,
twist drills etc. in order to
determine their behaviour
under service conditions.
Plastic
deformation
is
almost uniform over the
whole length of specimen,
which makes it possible to
determine
deformations
and stress more reliably for
highly ductile materials,
especially pure metals.

 Materials with very low ductility (or brittle

materials), which are often difficult to test in
tension, undergo quite measurable
deformation in torsion tests which facilitates
the determination of their mechanical
properties.
During torsional tests no neck forms in solid
specimens. Consequently the torque
increases up to the moment of failure.
Thin walled tubes or hollow sections are
sometimes used to determine the mechanical
properties more accurately, but the danger of
buckling in these sections has to be avoided
before the material fails from shear stress.

There are two main parts of the Torsion Test

Machine ;

A- Loading Unit

B- Indicating Unit

Torsion Testing Machine

The two units are seperated from each other by the

specimen.
While one unit is fixed to the bed the other is free to move
along the bed to compensate for the variation in the length of
the specimen when subjected to the torsional load.
Otherwise the specimen will be
subjected to axial stresses which
will then disturb the state of pure
shear stress

The test specimens for torsional

tests are cylindrical, usually
having square or hexagonal
shaped ends to be hold easily at
the chucks, as shown in the
figure.

Elastic Behaviour in Torsion

When the one end of a beam is fixed to the
wall
and a torque is applied to the other free end of
the beam, gradually the beam will undergo a
rotational deformation as seen in figure.
T is applied load
(Torque)
is output and
measurement

The deformation here is circumferental and

equal to s=R on the surface of the bar.

Stiffness in Torsion (Modulus of

Rigidity)
As in the tension test the slope of the -
curve
in elastic range gives the stiffness value;

This equation is valid only for

materials which behave linearly
in the elastic range.

Modulus of Rigidity G, can also be

determined from a materials Youngs
Modulus, E, provided that the Poissons
ratio, , for that material is known.

As can seen from equation of G, the higher

the E, the higher the G value in torsion.

Different materials and G values are given in

Table 4.5

Elastic Shear Strength (Ssy)

The elastic shear strength is measured by the maximum stress in the
torsion specimen, corresponding to a torque load representing the
transition from the elastic to plastic range.
For solid bars, Tsy point is not generally appearent due to stress
gradient across the diameter (having a non uniform stress
distribution over the cross-section of the bar)
Contrary to the solid bars which have a non uniform stress distribution
over the cross-section of the bar, the thin walled specimens will have
a uniform stress across the thickness of the wall and allow an
accurate determination of the Ssy point.

Simply, thinner is thewall thickess, more sensitive is the measure of elastic

strength since all fibres are at about the same stress.
Because thin walled tubular specimens do not benefit
from the
strengthening
effect of inner fibres which were at lower shear stress values than surface.
For Ssy & G determination a tubular specimen with;
L 10d and d 10t is recomended.

However, if a thin walled tube is subjected to torsion, it would first fail by

buckling before the shear strength of material is reached if the geometry is
not in suitable proportion.
If L/d and d/t ratios are not kept within limits, tubular specimens generally
fail by buckling before the Ssy point is reached.
Failure by buckling, however, happens generally if d > 10t.
For thin walled specimens during torsion tests, the
both end should be plugged, so that the jaws of
the testing machine will not collapse the specimen

The general equation of shear stress for solid

specimen is not directly used for tubular specimens
and a new equation is derived
For tubular thin walled specimens the shear stress is derived as:

So, Shear Elastic Strength is:

where Tsy is the torque at yield point and has to be

measured during test

The first start point of yielding is not readily appearent with most materials
because of the stress gradient across the diameter of a solid bar.
Outer most fibers are restrained from yielding by the less stressed inner
fibers.
It is not until considerable yielding has taken place that any noticeable
effect is apparent unless the material has very marked upper and lower
yield points as shown in figure below.

Consequently, the off-set-yield is commonly empolyed in torsion

testing (similar to tension test) to provide a common basis for
comparison.
The offset angle of twist is generally taken as 4 x 10-5 radian/mm
of gauge length.
The elastic shear strength, Ssy , is thus determined employing;

Where Tsy is the

torque at proportional
limit or the torque at
specified offset angle
of twist.

Modulus of Resilience
Resilience is the capacity of a material for
returning to original dimension after
deformation.
More mathematically; modulus of resilience is,
the elastic energy per unit volume which
can be stored in the material with no plastic
deformation.

Plastic Behaviour in Torsion

After torsional yield strength limit the shear stress
distribution
over the cross-section of a specimen is no longer linear.
It is, however, customary for comparison purposes with
similar materials, to employ the previous equation.
Though they do not represent the actual situation.

Plastic Shear Strength

Plastic shear strength is the appearent
maximum strength in torsion. The special name
of Modulus of rupture is given to this strength
and calculated from,

For purposes of comparison only the modulus of

rupture gives a sufficiently accurate index of
the
ultimate shear strength.

Toughness (Index No.)

Toughness is the ability of material to absorb energy in the
plastic range and is defined as To = Tu x f/Volume, similar
to
the case of tension. To = Sut x f

Types of Torsion Failures

Ductile Materials fracture at 90o to the specimen axis in
maximum shear plane.
Brittle materials fracture at 45o to the specimen axis in
maximum tensile stress plane.
Bucking will happen if L/d & d/t ration are not in limits.

Crankshaft
Failure

Torsion Test Procedure

We have to follow a procedure during torsion test, and it is as follows:

The specimens should be prepared in compliance with the standarts and

ensure a uniform stress distribution along the length of the specimen.
The surface of the specimen should be clear/free from scratches and notches
The loading over the specimen have to be pure torsional, and any condition
which may cause tension/compression or bending must be eliminated.
The torsion load must be applied gradually to give the effect of static loading.
Load must be applied until fracture/failure is observed.
During loading, values of torque and corresponding angular deformation
should be noted at regular intervals (T and vaues)
After test:
By making use of the measurements (T and vaues), shear stress vs shear
strain (- ) graph can be plotted.
Torsional yield strenght, shear modulus of rupture and ultimate shear strength
values can be calculated.
Also the ductility or brittleness of the material can be found.
The graph can be plotted whether by hand or by the electrograph of the test
machine.