Rolling contact fatigue and wear in rail steels: An overview

Abstract

Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and wear of rails are two critical failure generating problems of railway transport system worldwide. This paper presents an overview of investigations and state of the art knowledge on the mechanisms of RCF and wear studies revealed till date. Notably, majority of railway accidents are found to be promoted by RCF induced rail fracture and train derailments. The operational mechanism of wheel/rail contact introduces varied proportion of stick-slip formation from the involved rolling-sliding phenomenon. Sliding induced friction contributes many variety of defects of which wear is a prominent material separation process that in severity can also promote crack initiation. In view of the gravity of RCF and wear present study, as a first step, overviews their characterisation approaches. This understanding will help to formulate strategies in investigating the problems to evolve scientific and technological strategies for their mitigation.