ABSTRACT
A shear test of a composite material is typically performed with the desire to determine the shear modulus and shear strength. Ideally, both properties can be determined from the same test, but this is not always the case. In addition, the shear response of a composite material is commonly nonlinear, and full characterization thus requires generating the entire shear stress-strain curve to failure. However, many shear test methods are not capable of generating the entire curve, sometimes not even a portion of it.
