A study of rolling contact fatigue crack growth in U75V and U71Mn rails

Experimental evaluation of rolling contact fatigue in railroad wheels

“…RCF crack growth was analyzed in detail by Zhong et al [7] in terms of chemical composition, mechanical performance and microstructure. The crack propagation in rails under RCF is of vital importance for the railway industry.…”

Effects of Vanadium Addition on Microstructure and Tribological Performance of Bainite Hardfacing Coatings

“…At present, the high speed rail materials commonly used are pearlite steels such as steel U71Mn and U75V ( GB 2581-81 material system). One main factor limiting wider applications of these materials is low toughness [3]. In addition, the wear resistance of the current material system used is not sufficient to achieve a longer service life, as, after being used for a period time, the high speed rail has to be replaced due to out of limit wear.…”

Fatigue damage mechanism of railway wheels under lateral forces

“…Many studies have reported that a wear mechanism can remove the material of the surface layer where RCF cracks nucleate; consequently, a competition mechanism between wear and RCF has been proposed [6][7][8][9]. Unlike the slow deterioration process of wear, RCF causes abrupt fractures in rims.…”

“…Some researches on RCF have indicated that RCF cracks initiated in the contact surface [6,13,22], the lubrication such as water and oil may accelerate the propagation of fatigue cracks [23][24][25][26] which is one the main damage mechanisms occurring at wheels. In general, surface-initiated RCF depends on a number of interdependent parameters, such as the load [15], the slip ratio [27,28], the contact condition [29], the friction coefficient, the material defects [14], the wear and fatigue resistance of the material [30].…”