Fatigue behaviour of AA356-T6 cast aluminium alloy weakened by cracks and notches

In this paper the static and fatigue behaviour of AA356-T6 cast alloy is analysed in order to provide engineers with some practical rules for a preliminary assessment of this material in an early stage of the design process. The study is divided into two different parts: in the first part a systematic reanalysis of some data taken from literature highlighted the influence of the main metallurgical parameters on the static and fatigue properties of the considered material, whereas in the second part an experimental investigation was performed in order to verify the applicability of the Atzori–Lazzarin diagram to the AA356-T6 cast aluminium alloy.