Short pitch corrugation is a typical rail defect that lacks a thorough understanding and adequate root-cause solutions. This paper aims to identify the damage mechanism of short pitch corrugation through a microstructural analysis of a field rail sample. This sample made of R260Mn pearlitic steel was taken from a straight section of the Dutch railway network, and its geometry and surface hardness variation along the corrugation were measured and analyzed. Eleven specimens, including both corrugated and non-corrugated zones, were sectioned from the rail sample and continuously examined using light optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and micro-hardness testing. The results indicate that the corrugation damage mechanism can be categorized into three stages: (1) pre-corrugation, characterized by uniform wear and plastic deformation; (2) corrugation initiation, dominated by differential wear; and (3) corrugation growth, involving both differential wear and plastic deformation accumulation. The initiation and growth of corrugation both contribute to an inhomogeneous distribution of plastic deformation layer (PDL) in the rail subsurface, which follows an approximately sinusoidal pattern, matching the corrugation geometry in both wavelength and phase. Consequently, the hardness also varies in phase with the corrugation geometry, with higher hardness values at corrugation peaks. In the non-corrugation zone, the PDL and hardness show relatively small and irregular fluctuations. This study also provides meaningful insights into rail grinding, suggesting that grinding should account for differential PDL thickness to prevent corrugation reoccurrence due to subsurface material inhomogeneity.

Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) has been a persistent type of damage in rails. To guarantee the safety of railway operation and reduce the maintenance cost, various tests have been conducted to study the RCF damage. In this research, a state-of-the-art downscaled V-Track test rig at TU Delft was used to investigate the initiation of the head check (HC), a typical type of RCF damage. The V-Track test was designed to simulate the wheel-rail contact conditions with the stress state and spin creepage as similar as that in the field. The test rig ran up to 60, 000 load cycles, after which significant surface damage in the form of surface irregularity and cracks was observed in two different zones on the rails. The test results demonstrated that the V-Track is capable of maintaining steady-state loading conditions after a high number of load cycles. Using the same loading condition, a contact stress analysis was subsequently performed to identify the surface stress distribution and predict the pattern of plastic flow inside the contact patch. The plastic flow prediction was then confirmed by a microscopic analysis of the samples cut from the V-Track rails. Furthermore, the microscopic analysis indicated an opposite orientation of the plastic flow in the zone outside contact patch, which will be investigated in further studies.

Microscopic stress and strain partitioning control the mechanical and damage behavior of multiphase steels. Using a combined numerical and experimental approach, local strain distributions and deformation localization are characterized in a carbide free bainitic steel produced by continuous cooling. The microstructure of the steel consists of bainite (aggregate of bainitic ferrite and thin film retained austenite), martensite and blocky retained austenite. Numerical simulations were done using a von Mises J2 plasticity flow rule and also a phenomenological crystal plasticity material model. The representative volume element (RVE) was created using a realistic 2D geometry captured through Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD). These simulations describe the strain distribution and deformation localization in this steel. To validate the simulation results, local strain maps were obtained experimentally via in-situ tensile testing using micro digital image correlation (µDIC) in scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The information gained from numerical and experimental data gave valuable insight regarding the microstructural features responsible for strain partitioning and damage initiation in this carbide free bainitic steel. The results of the modelling show that martensite, martensite/bainitic ferrite interfaces, interface orientation with respect to tensile direction, bainitic ferrite size and phase composition influence the strain partitioning in this carbide free bainitic steel.

In this PhD thesis, we investigated possible steel candidates for use in railway crossings in order to reduce the damage in them. Pearlitic R350HT together with Bainitic grades including CrB, B1400 and carbide free B360 were investigated for their mechanical properties such as ultimate strength, yield strength, ductility and hardness. The influence of their microstructure on these mechanical properties was studied using microscopy techniques such as light optical microscopy (LOM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The effect of an isothermal heat treatment was also investigated on the bainitic steels which were mostly manufactured using continuous cooling. Carbide free bainitic steel B360 was found to have the highest strength, ductility and toughness among all the steels. These properties became even better after the isothermal heat treatment. It was decided to investigate this grade further in detail regarding its damage initiation properties. Micromechanical modelling and in-situ experiment with micro Digital Image Correlation (μDIC) was used to measure local strain maps during tensile loading. Microscopic strain partitioning was used to investigate the damage initiation behavior of this steel before and after the isothermal heat treatment. The deformation localization in the Continuously Cooled Carbide Free Bainitic Steels (CC-CFBS) (B360) was modelled using elastic plastic and crystal plasticity material models. Both models were validated using the in-situ tensile experiment. A 2D real geometry was used as the micromechanical Representative Volume Element. The blocky retained austenite (BRA) was considered as martensite from the beginning of the loading since during the experiments, it was confirmed that large portion of the BRA transform into martensite in a strain-induced transformation mechanism. The main damage mechanism in this steel was observed to be the strain localization in narrow bainitic channels between martensitic islands and the large BRA (which turn into martensite) and in the interfaces of bainite with martensite. The initiated micro cracks can later fracture the martensitic islands. xii Other factors such as the interface of martensite/bainitic ferrite, the orientation of this interface and the phase morphology also influence the damage initiation in the continuously cooled B360 steel. An isothermal heat treatment was performed on this steel in order to remove/reduce the main damage initiating factors such as martensitic islands and the large BRA which was proved to improve the mechanical properties and damage characteristics . The deformation localization in isothermally heat treated CFBS (B360-HT) was modelled and the modelling results were validated using the in-situ experimental tensile tests. The effect of the isothermal heat treatment on B360 was to remove martensite, form finer bainitic microstructure and remove the unstable large BRA. As a result, small and homogeneously distributed BRA was observed in the B360-HT. The combination of numerical simulation and in-situ test revealed that the new proposed microstructure of carbide free bainitic steel has less strain localization compared to the continuously cooled B360 steel. The maximum local strain was reduced from 35% to 25% using the isothermal heat treatment. In the B360-HT, the strain bands usually form in 45 to the tensile axis. This new proposed microstructure of carbide free bainitic steel could be a good candidate to be used in the crossing nose.

Wheel–rail contact creates high stresses in both rails and wheels, which can lead to different damage, such as plastic deformation, wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF). It is important to use high-quality steels that are resistant to these damages. Mechanical properties and failure of steels are determined by various microstructural features, such as grain size, phase fraction, as well as spatial distribution and morphology of these phases in the microstructure. To quantify the mechanical behavior of bainitic rail steels, uniaxial tensile experiments and hardness measurements were performed. In order to characterize the influence of microstructure on the mechanical behavior, various microscopy techniques, such as light optical microscopy (LOM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), were used. Three bainitic grades industrially known as B360, B1400 plus and Cr-Bainitic together with commonly used R350HT pearlitic grade were studied. Influence of isothermal bainitic heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the bainitic grades was investigated and compared with B360, B1400 plus, Cr-Bainitic and R350HT in as-received (AR) condition from the industry. The results show that the carbide-free bainitic steel (B360) after an isothermal heat treatment offers the best mechanical performance among these steels due to a very fine, carbide-free bainitic microstructure consisting of bainitic ferrite and retained austenite laths.