Structure and fracture resistance of steels in different zones of railway axles

Keywords

railway axle, fatigue life, microstructure, micropore, fractography.

Cite as

Babachenko O. I., Kononenko H. A., Podolskyi R. V., Safronova O. A., and Taranenko A. O. Structure and fracture resistance of steels in different zones of railway axles. Physico­chemical Mechanics of Materials. 2022. 58(2), 124-128.

Abstract

The fatigue life and microstructure of railway axles with macrostructural features detected by ultrasonic testing (axle № 178) and without such features (axle № 143) of EA1N grade, manufactured according to standard EN 13261:2020, have been studied. A comparative analysis of the relevant samples taken near the surface, at a distance of 1/2 radius and in the center of the studied railway axles has been done. It is shown that the metal of the surface layer of the studied axles has higher values of fatigue life compared to the metal at a depth of 1/2 of the axles radius, and in its central part. The difference in the values of the cross-section of the axles with defects is up to 10%, while for the axle without defects the value of fatigue life of the metal near the surface is almost 5 times greater than the samples cut out from the center. Based on the results of microstructural and fractographic analyses, the direct dependence of fatigue cracks on the size and number of non-metallic inclusions, micropores in steel and structural inhomogeneity has been established.

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