While very small per unit length, thermal expansion coefficients have a direct effect on part loading. Classically a problem for very large material systems like railroads and pipelines, it is often overlooked in the consumer space as being a negligible source of material stress. As our precision in manufacturing increased however and our tolerances for components shrank, thermal expansion became a serious issue for handheld electronics. In this lab your goal is to begin to learn to model this strain due to thermal loading, and determine how this strain affects the stress in a part for different loading conditions