THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Fracture Mechanics Applied to the Design of Adhesively Bonded Joints by Filipe José Palhares Chaves Supervisor: Lucas Filipe Martins da Silva DEMec,Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal Co-Supervisors: Marcelo Francisco de Sousa Ferreira de Moura DEMec,Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal David Dillard Engineering Science and Mechanics Department, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 April 2013