An important trend in the design and fabrication of engineering structures is the increasing use of combinations of dissimilar materials within the same structure. The use of dissimilar materials in combination often results from a need to minimize weight. Especially thick elastic adhesive bonds have a wide potential to be used as structural joints in light weight structures for all surface transportation systems. The thickness of the elastic joints is in the order of a tenth of a millimeter to several millimeters. Thick elastic joints are able to sustain strains of some hundred percents. Therefore, these types of adhesive joints are pre-destined to combine materials of extremely different thermal expansion behavior. One important requirement to use thick elastic joints for engineering structures is a sound method to design and to evaluate the adhesive joints.
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