Shear modulus

 ( Materials Science ) 

In materials science, shear modulus or modulus of rigidity, denoted by G, or sometimes S or μ, is a measure of the elastic shear stiffness of a material and is defined as the ratio of shear stress to the shear strain:

$G\; \backslash \; \backslash stackrel\{\backslash mathrm\{def\}\}\{=\}\backslash \; \backslash frac\; \{\backslash tau\_\{xy\}\}\; \{\backslash gamma\_\{xy\}\}\; =\; \backslash frac\{F/A\}\{\backslash Delta\; x/l\}\; =\; \backslash frac\{F\; l\}\{A\; \backslash Delta\; x\}$

where

$\backslash tau\_\{xy\}\; =\; F/A\; \backslash ,$ = shear stress

$F$ is the force which acts

$A$ is the area on which the force acts

$\backslash gamma\_\{xy\}$ = shear strain. In engineering $:=\backslash Delta\; x/l\; =\; \backslash tan\; \backslash theta$, elsewhere $:=\; \backslash theta$

$\backslash Delta\; x$ is the transverse displacement

$l$ is the initial length of the area.

The derived SI unit of shear modulus is the pascal (Pa), although it is usually expressed in gigapascals (GPa) or in thousand pounds per square inch (ksi). Its dimensional form is M¹L⁻¹T⁻², replacing force by mass times acceleration.

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Explanation

Diamond	478.0
Steel Crandall, Dahl, Lardner (2025). 9780070134416, McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780070134416	79.3
Iron	52.5
Copper Material properties	44.7
Titanium	41.4
Glass	26.2
Aluminium	25.5
Polyethylene	0.117
Rubber	0.0006
GraniteHoek, Evert, and Jonathan D. Bray. Rock slope engineering. CRC Press, 1981.Pariseau, William G. Design analysis in rock mechanics. CRC Press, 2017.	24
Shale	1.6
Limestone	24
Chalk	3.2
Sandstone	0.4
Wood	4

The shear modulus is one of several quantities for measuring the stiffness of materials. All of them arise in the generalized Hooke's law:

• Young's modulus E describes the material's strain response to uniaxial stress in the direction of this stress (like pulling on the ends of a wire or putting a weight on top of a column, with the wire getting longer and the column losing height),
• the Poisson's ratio ν describes the response in the directions orthogonal to this uniaxial stress (the wire getting thinner and the column thicker),
• the bulk modulus K describes the material's response to (uniform) hydrostatic pressure (like the pressure at the bottom of the ocean or a deep swimming pool),
• the shear modulus G describes the material's response to shear stress (like cutting it with dull scissors).

These moduli are not independent, and for isotropic materials they are connected via the equationsLandau

$E\; =\; 2G(1+\backslash nu)\; =\; 3K(1-2\backslash nu)$

The shear modulus is concerned with the deformation of a solid when it experiences a force parallel to one of its surfaces while its opposite face experiences an opposing force (such as friction). In the case of an object shaped like a rectangular prism, it will deform into a parallelepiped. Anisotropic materials such as wood, paper and also essentially all single crystals exhibit differing material response to stress or strain when tested in different directions. In this case, one may need to use the full tensor-expression of the elastic constants, rather than a single scalar value.

One possible definition of a fluid would be a material with zero shear modulus.

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Shear waves In homogeneous and isotropic solids, there are two kinds of waves, P wave and S wave. The velocity of a shear wave, $(v\_s)$ is controlled by the shear modulus,

$v\_s\; =\; \backslash sqrt\{\backslash frac\; \{G\}\; \{\backslash rho\}\; \}$

where

G is the shear modulus

$\backslash rho$ is the solid's density.

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Shear modulus of metals The shear modulus of metals is usually observed to decrease with increasing temperature. At high pressures, the shear modulus also appears to increase with the applied pressure. Correlations between the melting temperature, vacancy formation energy, and the shear modulus have been observed in many metals.March, N. H., (1996), Electron Correlation in Molecules and Condensed Phases, Springer, p. 363

Several models exist that attempt to predict the shear modulus of metals (and possibly that of alloys). Shear modulus models that have been used in plastic flow computations include:

1. the Varshni-Chen-Gray model developed by and used in conjunction with the Mechanical Threshold Stress (MTS) plastic flow stress model.
2. the Steinberg-Cochran-Guinan (SCG) shear modulus model developed by and used in conjunction with the Steinberg-Cochran-Guinan-Lund (SCGL) flow stress model.
3. the Nadal and LePoac (NP) shear modulus model that uses Lindemann theory to determine the temperature dependence and the SCG model for pressure dependence of the shear modulus.

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Varshni-Chen-Gray model The Varshni-Chen-Gray model (sometimes referred to as the Varshni equation) has the form:

$$

\mu(T) = \mu_0 - \frac{D}{\exp(T_0/T) - 1}
     
     

where $\backslash mu\_0$ is the shear modulus at $T=0K$, and $D$ and $T\_0$ are material constants.

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SCG model The Steinberg-Cochran-Guinan (SCG) shear modulus model is pressure dependent and has the form

$$

\mu(p,T) = \mu_0 + \frac{\partial \mu}{\partial p} \frac{p}{\eta^\frac{1}{3}} +
\frac{\partial \mu}{\partial T}(T - 300) ; \quad
\eta := \frac{\rho}{\rho_0}
     
     

where, μ₀ is the shear modulus at the reference state ( T = 300 K, p = 0, η = 1), p is the pressure, and T is the temperature.

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NP model The Nadal-Le Poac (NP) shear modulus model is a modified version of the SCG model. The empirical temperature dependence of the shear modulus in the SCG model is replaced with an equation based on Lindemann melting theory. The NP shear modulus model has the form:

$$

\mu(p,T) = \frac{1}{\mathcal{J}\left(\hat{T}\right)}
\left[
  \left(\mu_0 + \frac{\partial \mu}{\partial p} \frac{p}{\eta^\frac{1}{3}} \right)
  \left(1 - \hat{T}\right) + \frac{\rho}{Cm}~T
\right]; \quad
C := \frac{\left(6\pi^2\right)^\frac{2}{3}}{3} f^2
     
     

where

$$

\mathcal{J}(\hat{T}) := 1 + \exp\left[-\frac{1 + 1/\zeta}
{1 + \zeta/\left(1 - \hat{T}\right)}\right] \quad
\text{for} \quad \hat{T} := \frac{T}{T_m}\in[0, 6+ \zeta],
     
     

and μ₀ is the shear modulus at absolute zero and ambient pressure, ζ is an area, m is the atomic mass, and f is the Lindemann constant.

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Shear relaxation modulus The shear relaxation modulus $G(t)$ is the Dynamic modulus

Rubinstein, Michael, 1956 December 20- (2025). 019852059X, Oxford University Press. 019852059X

$G$:

$G=\backslash lim\_\{t\backslash to\; \backslash infty\}\; G(t)$.

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See also

• Elasticity tensor
• Dynamic modulus
• Impulse excitation technique
• Shear strength
• Seismic moment

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