Comparison of wear and rolling contact fatigue behaviours of bainitic and pearlitic rails under various rolling-sliding conditions

Abstract

Rolling-sliding wear experiments were performed to investigate the wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) behaviours of a premium pearlitic rail (PH), a carbon-free bainitic rail (BH) and two standard pearlitic rails (U71Mn and U75V). The wear regime and RCF damage evolution of the PH and BH materials in terms of Tγ/A (i.e. creepages and contact pressures) were compared and analyzed. The high-hardness BH steel presented a wear resistance similar to U71Mn and U75V rail materials, whereas lower wear rate was shown by the PH steel. Concerning the RCF performance, the damage of BH steel (comparable to U75V) was more severe than that of PH steel (comparable to U71Mn). Finally, with the increase in creepages and pressures, the wear and RCF damage of both PH and BH steels increased. These information could provide a guide in choosing rail materials and in development of bainitic rails.

Effects of solid friction modifier on friction and rolling contact fatigue damage of wheel-rail surfaces

“…RCF is one of the most common types of damage occurring on wheel-rail surfaces [20,21]. RCF damage is influenced by many parameters, including wheel-rail materials, loading pressure, lubrication, and running conditions [8,22].…”

Experimental study on wear properties of wheel and rail materials with different hardness values

“…More details about the sampling position for metallographic observations can be found in Ref. [25]. The worn surfaces and fatigue cracks were characterized by using optical microscopy (OLYMPUS BX60M, Japan) and SEM (JSM-7800FPRIME, Japan).…”

Assessment of durability and reliability of ET41 series locomotive wheels based on laboratory tests

“…According to the information given in the works [4,13,17], the wheel and rail hardness was selected. Since pearlitic steels constitute the most commonly used material for wheels and rails in most countries [7,8,22], the wear model in the present work was developed for exactly these materials.…”

“…Apart form the time, cost or comfort, the safety of rail transport depends to a large extent on the aforementioned technical condition. This condition deteriorates as a result of wear and rolling contact fatigue [4,7,21]. The rolling contact fatigue plays an important role in the case of high-speed railroads, high usage of trains in large cities, and heavy haul freight railways, especially when increased axle loading acts on the latter, e.g.…”