Shear area represents the area of the cross section that is effective in resisting shear deformation.
It is mainly used in finite element analysis to calculate a member's deformation due to shear stress.
Substituting SA for A, in effect, reduces the effective cross sectional area to reflect the parabolic
distribution of shear stress in the section, resulting in a better approximation of the maximum shear
stress.
It can be of significance in short, deep beams and can usually be ignored for long, slender beams where
deflections due to shear stress are negligible compared to bending stress deflections.
The shear area (SA) is as follows:
SA = I^2 / [Integral over the area of (Q/b)^2 dA], where I= moment of inertia, b= width of cross section
at a distance z from the neutral axis, Q= 1st moment of area at z, taken about neutral axis
The shear area is often expressed in terms of the actual cross sectional area as approximately
SA=A/K, where K has the following values:
Wide Flange Section (X-X): K=1.2
Rectangular cross-section: K=1.5
Solid circular cross-section: K=1.1
Thin-walled hollow cross-section: K=2
Other approximations for SA of Wide Flange Sections:
Wide Flange Section (X-X): SA=Web Area
Wide Flange Section (Y-Y): SA=0.83*Flange Area
I didn't remember all this off the top of my head; it is an amalgam from a few of my finite element
references.