Block shear is a difficult subject to visualize.  Each connection has several failure modes and their tension and shear areas are hard to visualize.  These animations illustrate the important aspects of designing for block shear.

Block Shear Failure

Windows Media Player (.avi) / Quick Time Player (.mpg)

shows the different modes of a block shear failure

 

 

Block Shear Areas

Windows Media Player (.avi) / Quick Time Player (.mpg)

shows the shear and tension areas of the block shear failure modes as well as how to calculate their gross and net areas