Electric pulse treatment of rim wheel metal after operation

Abstract

Introduction. Load increase on the wheel pair ax requires the use of railway wheels with the advanced complex of properties. Except strength properties, the properties of metal resistance to defect nucleation on the wheel thread are of high importance. The above mentioned properties increase is possible by using different technological decisions: alloying and heat strengthening. Purpose. The purpose is an attempt to estimate the softening degree of the wheel thread metal using the electric pulse treatment. Methodology. Electric pulse treatment (ET) was carried out on the special plant in the conditions of JSC DS (Nikolayev city). As the property of metal strength the Vickers hardness number is used. The microstructure research was carried out using the light microscope. The material for research is the carbon steel of the rim fragment of railway wheel №181732, withdrawn after operation, containing 0,55%С, 0,74%Mn, 0,33%Si, 0,009%P, 0,01%S, 0,06% Ni, 0,1%Cr, 0,08%Cu. Findings. Exposing the rim fragment to electric pulse treatment (ET), the qualitative changes of internal structure of the wheel rim metal corresponded to the experimentally observed geometrical dimensions change of the specimen, depending on the cycles number. As a result of the treatment the reduction of cold strained metal hardness is observed. It was found out 20 % softening on the wheel thread for the І rim area the, for the ІІ rim area the 8% softening and for the ІІІ 11% softening in relation to the initial state. Originality. As a result of electric pulse treatment, the change of the specimen geometrical dimensions is observed. Depending on the number of cycles it causes softening effect. It is proved that the observed softening value during ET is qualitatively connected with the cold strain level on the rail wheel thread. Practical value. As a result of metal cold work on the wheel thread its resistance to the defect nucleation is being reduced. The resulted data can be used during elaboration of measures to increase the operational safety of railway transport The technology development of the strain hardening embrittling influence reduce is an important scientific direction in further researches.