» Fasteners
Bolts, rivets, nails, screws, etc., hold parts of a structure together by transferring load from one component to another. Two important types of stress in Fasteners are BEARING STRESS and SHEAR STRESS.

» Bearing Stress
BEARING STRESS is the stress caused by one part acting directly on another. Bearing stress, as the name implies, is a compressive stress and is equal to the Bearing Force divided by the Bearing Area.

In typical Bolted or Riveted Connections we are mainly interested in the AVERAGE BEARING STRESS, s_B, which is the Bearing Force divided by the Projected Area of the Fasteners:

sB = Bearing Force Projected Area

» Shear Stress
The AVERAGE SHEAR STRESS, t_S, in Fasteners is simply the Force divided by the Cross-Sectional Area, which is generally a circle.

tS = Force Cross-section Area