Abstract
The mechanical fastening has some advantages in respect of the fastening strength and disassemble of the fastened parts. However, at the same time it has some dangerous factors, can cause fatigue crack initiation and propagation due to not only the static loading such as cargo and passengers but also the dynamic loading like vibrations which occur in the engines and the propellers. For this reason, the strength evaluation for the mechanical fastenings along with the sophisticated and detailed mechanical design and the safety evaluation should be executed, In this paper, we were carried out experiments to study fatigue crack growth paths in structures containing the multiple circular holes. It was investigated that how circular holes are affected on fatigue crack growth paths using the specimen consists of A5052-H112, which is widely used as the ship materials. It was found from the experimental results that the fatigue crack as if it is drawn to circular holes when crack tip approach to circular holes. However, it did not go into circular hole if there is the next circular hole. Therefore, the clarification of mechanism on the fatigue crack initiation and the propagation in structures containing the multiple circular holes can be expected in this study.