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The aim of this study is to analyse the influence of notches on the fatiguebehaviour of an electrolytic copper using finite element simulations of polycrystallineaggregates. In these simulations, in which the grains are explicitly modelled, theanisotropic behavior of each FCC crystal is described by the generalized Hooke’s lawwith a cubic elasticity tensor and by a single crystal visco-plastic model. The numericalanalysis is done using several smooth and notched microstructures composed of about200 grains. The cyclic mechanical responses of the grains are then studied for differentdefect sizes and the ability of three fatigue criteria to predict the defect size effect on thefatigue strength is evaluated thanks to the comparison with experimental data [1].