Microstructure Origin of Strength and Toughness of a Premium Rail Steel

Mechanical and fracture behavior of bainitic rail steel

“…Bainitic steels usually contain 0.15-0.45% carbon, 0.3-2.0% man- ganese, 0.15-0.2% silicon, 0.5-3.0% chromium, and at least one element from molybdenum, nickel, copper, niobium, vanadium, titanium or boron. The compositions reported in various publications [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] are summarized in Table 1.…”

“…The low carbon bainitic steels have high toughness, impact resistance and rolling contact fatigue resistance. The mechanical properties of some bainitic and pearlitic steels reported in the literature [3,4,6,10,11] are shown in Table 2. To elucidate the data in Table 2 further, an assumption is made to calculate the toughness of the steels given in Table 2.…”

“…The fracture and fatigue damage tolerance of pearlitic rail steel has been investigated [3,18]. The mechanical properties, fracture toughness and fatigue damage tolerance of pearlitic rail steels, in view of their microstructures and service loading conditions, were studied.…”

Mechanical and fracture analysis of welded pearlitic rail steels

“…The entire fracture surface contains well-drawn ferrite strips. Pulled up lamellae and tearing ridgelines inside the grains can also be seen [Khourshid et al 2001]. The fracture surface of the parent rail taken from location B is shown in the top right micrograph.…”

Studies on Microstructures and Processing of Ss409m Sheet.

“…It is known that high carbon bainitic and martensitic steels were not used as rail steel in the past. Instead, high carbon pearlitic steels have long been produced as the steel rail material (Khourshid et al, 2001), because highcarbon bainitic steel is less wear resistant than fine pearlitic steel. Similarly, the plate martensite is also brittle and susceptible to micro-cracks (Singh et al, 2001).…”