Susceptibility of pearlitic rail grades to thermal white etching layer formation

Conference paper (2018)

Authors

M.J.M.M. Steenbergen Railway Engineering -

Research Group

Railway Engineering () (TU Delft)

Wheel-rail contact White etching layer (WEL) Isothermal transformation Heat treated grades Shifting time transformation under stress.

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3f21efd3-f033-4160-a15a-8326333e45f9

More Info

expand_more

Published Date

2018

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Department

Engineering Structures

Research Group

Railway Engineering

Abstract

One of the most critical issues in railway engineering is the rail lifetime optimization. In track, rails suffer from various degradation forms like the head checks, squats and studs. The white etching layer (WEL) is considered as a primary stage of damage. The WEL usually appears as a metallurgical change due to the severe loading in the rail running band. This work addresses their generation based on the wheel-rail contact together with a metallurgical analysis. Influences of microstructure and stress on the austenite transformation kinetic are simulated. Consequently, the isothermal austenization diagrams for R260Mn, R350HT and R370CrHT grades under stress are discussed. It turns out that the austenitic transformation is possible within a comparable time to the wheel-rail contact duration.