In engineering, shear strength is the strength of a material or component against the type of yield or structural failure when the material or component fails in shear. A shear load is a force that tends to produce a sliding failure on a material along a plane that is parallel to the direction of the force.

What do you mean by shear strength?

The shear strength of a material is defined as its ability to resist forces that cause the material's internal structure to slide against itself. The shear strength of a material can be measured in either the vertical or horizontal direction.

How is shear strength determined?

The direct shear test is also known as shear box test. The principle of the test is to cause shear failure of a soil specimen, placed in a shear box along a predetermined horizontal plane, under a given normal stress, and to determine the shear stress at failure.