Shear strain (${\gamma }_{xy}=2{\epsilon }_{xy}$)

Engineering shear strain is the first-order change of the right angle between material lines initially directed along two perpendicular axes. For a displacement $\mathbf{u}$, ${\gamma }_{xy}={\partial }_y{u}_x+{\partial }_x{u}_y=2{\epsilon }_{xy}$, where ${\epsilon }_{xy}$ is the tensor strain component. Slender Euler-Bernoulli beam equation models neglect the transverse shear strain contribution to deflection.

The time derivative of engineering shear strain. A Newtonian simple-shear stress is $\eta \dot{\gamma }$. This scalar is twice the off-diagonal symmetric rate-of-strain-tensor component.

The infinitesimal strain tensor $\mathrm{diag}(-e,e)$ compresses one principal direction and stretches the perpendicular one by the same amount. Rotating the coordinate axes through $45^{\circ }$ turns it into a tensor with zero normal strains and off-diagonal entries of magnitude $e$. The engineering shear strain is twice the tensor shear component, so its shear angle has magnitude $\gamma =2e$. Likewise principal stresses $(-S,S)$ give zero normal stress and shear stress of magnitude $S$ on those rotated faces. The shear modulus law $S=G\gamma$ therefore gives $S=2Ge$.