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A. Tridello et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 26 (2013) 49-56 ; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.26.06 49 Comparison between dog-bone and Gaussian specimens for size effect evaluation in gigacycle fatigue A. Tridello, D.S. Paolino, G. Chiandussi, M. Rossetto Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, Italy, andrea.tridello@polito.it , davide.paolino@polito.it , giorgio.chiandussi@polito.it, massimo.rossetto@polito.it A BSTRACT . Gigacycle fatigue properties of materials are strongly affected by the specimen risk volume (volume of material subjected to a stress amplitude larger than the 90% of the maximum stress). Gigacycle fatigue tests, performed with ultrasonic fatigue testing machines, are commonly carried out by using hourglass shaped specimens with a small risk volume. The adoption of traditional dog-bone specimens allows for increasing the risk volume, even if the increment is quite limited. In order to obtain larger risk volumes, a new specimen shape is proposed (Gaussian specimen). The dog-bone and the Gaussian specimens are compared through Finite Element Analyses and the numerical results are validated experimentally by means of strain gages measurements. The range of applicability of the two different specimens in terms of available risk volume and stress concentration effects due to the cross section variation is determined. K EYWORDS . Very-high-cycle fatigue; Ultrasonic testing machine; Risk volume; Wave propagation equations; Stress concentration factor. I NTRODUCTION n recent years, the interest in gigacycle fatigue behaviour of metallic materials (up to 10 10 cycles) is significantly increased. Design requirements in specific industrial fields (aerospace, mechanical and energy industry) for structural components characterized by even larger fatigue lives (gigacycle fatigue) lead to a more detailed investigation on material properties in the gigacycle regime. Experimental results, obtained by using testing machines working in resonance conditions and capable of reaching a loading frequency equal to 20 kHz (ultrasound), have shown that specimens may fail also at levels of stress amplitude below the conventional fatigue limit [1-3]. When specimens are subjected to stress amplitudes below the conventional fatigue limit, failures are generally due to cracks which nucleate internally from inclusions or defects; whereas when specimens are subjected to stress amplitudes above the conventional fatigue limit, failures are generally due to cracks which nucleate from the surface of the specimen. Recently, models able to take into account these two different modes of failure have been proposed in the literature [4-6]. In case of internal crack nucleation, fatigue strength decreases when the specimen size increases. As reported in [7-9], the decrement in fatigue strength is physically justifiable by considering the probability of finding inclusions causing failure when the risk volume (volume of material subjected to a stress amplitude above the 90% of the maximal stress [7]) increases. Since experimental tests are carried out almost entirely by means of ultrasonic fatigue testing machines, the specimen size and the consequent specimen risk volume are imposed by resonance condition and are generally significantly limited. Experimental tests exploring the gigacycle fatigue properties of materials have been generally carried out by using I