Influence of white etching layer on rolling contact behavior at wheel-rail interface

The existence of narrow and brittle white etching layers(WELs)on the rail surface is often linked with the formation of rail defects such as squats and studs,which play the key roles in rail surface degradation and tribological performance.In the present study,a systematic investigation on stress/strain distribution and fatigue life of the WEL during wheel-rail rolling contact was conducted based on a numerical model considering the realistic wheel geometry.This is the first study considering the influence of rail materials,loading pressure,frictional condition,WEL geometry(a/b),and slip ratio(Sr)in the practical service conditions at the same time.The results revealed much higher residual stress in WEL than in rail matrix.Stress changes along the rail depth matched with the previously reported microstructure evolutions.The current work revealed that the maximum difference in contact stress between the wheel passages of rail matrix and the WEL region(noted as stress variation)rises with the increase of loading pressure,the value of a/b,and Sr;but drops with the friction coefficient(μ).In addition,a critical length–depth ratio of 5 for a/b has been found.The fatigue parameter,FP,of the WEL decreased quickly with the length–depth ratio when it was less than 5 and then increased slightly when it was larger than 5.This study also revealed that the fatigue life of the WEL was reduced for high strength head hardened(HH)rail compared with standard carbon(SC)rail.

Effect of high pressure torsion process on the microhardness,microstructure and tribological property of Ti6Al4V alloy

In the present study,a fully lamellar Ti6Al4V alloy was severely deformed by high pressure torsion(HPT)process under a pressure of 7.5 GPa up to 10 revolutions.Experimental results revealed that the microhardness of Ti6Al4V was increased remarkably by about~41%and saturated at about 432 Hv after the HPT process.A relatively uniform bulk nanostructured Ti6Al4V alloy with an average grain size of about52.7 nm was obtained eventually,and no obvious formation of metastableωphase was detected by XRD analysis.For the first time,the tribological properties of the HPT processed Ti6Al4V alloy were investigated by a ball-on-disc test at room temperature under a dry condition.It was found that HPT process had a great influence on the friction and wear behaviors of Ti6Al4V alloy.With increasing the number of HPT revolutions,both friction coefficient and specific wear rate were obviously decreased due to the reduction of abrasion and adhesion wears.After being deformed by 10 HPT revolutions,the friction coefficient was reduced from about 0.49 to 0.37,and the specific wear rate was reduced by about 48%.The observations in this study indicated that HPT processed Ti6Al4V alloys had good potential in structural applications owing to their greatly improved mechanical and tribological properties.