With the aim to predict the durability of railway wheels, thermomechanical damage was studied for two steels with different alloying levels of silicon and manganese in the temperature range of 500–725°C. Softening caused by cementite spheroidisation in pearlite leads to changes in the mechanical behaviour and an accompanying decrease in fatigue lifetimes. It was found that higher contents of Si and Mn lead to better resistance to softening of both virgin and plastically deformed material. Correspondingly, the high Si-Mn alloyed steel loses much less in fatigue lifetime than the lower alloyed steel.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.