shear stress — Oil & Gas Glossary
The force per unit area required to sustain a constant rate of fluid movement. Mathematically, shear stress can be defined as: If a fluid is placed between two parallel plates spaced 1.0 cm apart, and a force of 1.0 dyne is applied to each square centimeter of the surface of the upper plate to keep it in motion, the shear
Detailed Explanation
stress in the fluid is 1 dyne/cm2 at any point between the two plates.