Research of DP600 high strength steel wheels

Steel has been used as a traditional wheel materials for a long time.Before 1980' s,over 90% wheels were made of steels.Then,the yield strength of wheel steels increased gradually from 240 -350 MPa to 600 MPa or higher.The advanced high strength steels become the main wheel materials.Since 1990's,DP600 has been broadly applied in steel wheels oversea.However,there was little research of application of high strength steel wheels(especially wheel disc) in domestic wheel industrial.In presence, DP600 steel wheel is only developed in FAWSH by using imported CKD.Other domestic steel wheel manufacturers did little work on high strength DP600 wheel discs.Baosteel wheels Co.Ltd.is the first domestic company producing DP600 steel discs and has become the leading company in production of high strength wheel.Because of the high strength of DP600,its formability,springback,and wrinkle have become the keys of the successful application of DP600 steel.In this paper,the metallurgical and mechanical properties are firstly introduced and formation problems of DP600 are described compared to traditional steels.Secondly,FLD analysis has been done.Wrinkle and more springback are recognized.To solve these problems,an optimized solution is designed and the good result is obtained.The test has shown that the fatigue property of steel wheel discs made by DP600 have been greatly improved.

Test study on the fatigue performance of HSS for steel wheels

High-strength steel is currently one of the main material choices for creating lightw eight automobiles. To realize lighter wheels that can comply with harsh fatigue requirements,sufficient know ledge of the relevant material fatigue properties is required. Fatigue tests were conducted on Baosteel＇s 600 M Pa level dual-phase steel DP600,which is a typical high-strength hot-rolled steel for steel wheel,and on 550 M Pa level HR60. Whler（ S-N） fatigue curves were obtained for both steels,and the measured stress fatigue limits were 414 and 329 M Pa for the HR60 and the DP600,respectively.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of railway wheels manufactured with low-medium carbon Si-Mn-Mo-V steel

The suitability of carbide-free bainite steel as railway wheel materials was investigated. The low-medium carbon Si-Mn- Mo-V steel was designed to make railway wheels by forging and rolling. The slack quenching with water was conducted on the tread of rim section by programmed control to simulate isothermal heat treatment after being austenitized. Microstructures and mechanical properties have been studied. The results indicate that the microstructure of the rim is mainly carbide-free bainite, and the mixed microstructure of bainitic ferrite and granular bainite is observed in web and hub. The mechanical properties are superior to both the standard requirements and the commercial production, such as CL60 plain carbon. The Charpy impact energy is relatively high at room and/or subzero temperatures. The force-displacement curves and fractographies reveal the excellent ability of resistance to crack initiation and propagation.

Effect of Sulfur Contents on Fracture Toughness of Wheel Steels for High Speed Train

The effect of different contents of S on fracture toughness of railway wheel steels for high speed train has been researched.The results show that there are kinds of non-metallic inclusion when O content retaining at about 10×10-6,such as Al 2 O 3 inclusions and Al 2 O 3 +MnS complex inclusions and single MnS inclusions.This is connected with S content level in steel.Fracture toughness of railway steel increase obviously because of Al 2 O 3 covered by MnS around when S content is increase to about 70×10-6.It shows that,after Al 2 O 3 covering by MnS around,stresses around complex inclusion decrease rapidly till disappear when analyzed by tessellated stresses theory.That is the reason of fracture toughness rise.

Fatigue Property of Low Cost and High Strength Wheel Steel for Commercial Vehicle

The fatigue properties of the newly developed wheel steel used for commercial vehicles were studied using push-pull axial loading fatigue tests with stress ratio R=-1. Q235B steel, which is conventionally applied to commercial vehicle wheels, was also analyzed for comparison. Although the chemical composition and microstructure （ferrite and pearlite） of newly developed wheel steel were similar to those of Q235B, the 107 cycles fatigue limit of the new wheel steel was 260 MPa, which is 24% higher than that of Q235B （210 MPa）. The improvement of the fatigue strength of the new wheel steel can be attributed to grain refinement. In order to investigate the effect of the decrease in thickness of the wheel steel on the fatigue property of the wheel, dynamic cornering fatigue tests were conducted on full scale wheels with the model of 8.25 × 22.5. The results indicated that the newly developed wheel steel had outstanding fatigue life even if the mass loss was 10% in comparison with Q235B.

Frictional Heat-Induced Phase Transformation on Train Wheel Surface

By combining thermomechanical coupling finite element analysis with the characteristics of phase transformation [continuous cooling transformation （CCT） curve], the thermal fatigue behavior of train wheel steel under high speed and heavy load conditions was analyzed. The influence of different materials on the formation of the phase transformation zone of the wheel tread was discussed. The result showed that the peak temperature of wheel/track friction zone could be higher than the austenitizing temperature for braking. The depth of the austenitized region could reach a point of 0.9 mm beneath the wheel tread surface. The supercooled austenite is transformed to a hard and brittle martensite layer during the following rapid cooling process, which may lead to cracking and then spalling on the wheel tread surface. The decrease in carbon contents of the train wheel steel helps inhibit the formation of martensite by increasing the austenitizing temperature of the train wheel steel. When the carbon contents decrease from 0.7% to 0.4%, the Ac3 of the wheel steel is increased by 45 ℃, and the thickness of the martensite layer is de creased by 30 %, which is helpful in reducing the thermal cycling fatigue of the train wheel tread such as spalling.