New pearlitic steels for 21st century rail applications

To improve competitiveness,the nation's railroads have increased the axle loads and speed of the trains.This has led to a rapid decrease in the life expectancy of premium rails through accelerated wear,rolling contact fatigue and fracture.To counter this effect,the railroads need rails that exhibit better performance in these areas.A research program has been initiated to study the microstructural aspects of near-eutectoid steels that would improve these properties.The first phase of the work was to carefully characterize the existing commercial rail steels in terms of pearlite interlamellar spacing,steel cleanliness and the presence of pro-eutectoid cementite on prior-austenite boundaries.These characterizations were then correlated with both mechanical properties and overall rail performance.The second phase of the program was to develop a better microstructure through control of composition,thermomechanical processing and cooling path.This was achieved through the use of laboratory-melted heats of experimental near-eutectoid compositions and a computer controlled MTS compression machine modified for axisymmetric compression testing and subsequent controlled cooling.The optimum processing route for these new steels has been determined,and pilot-scale heats have been melted,hot rolled and cooled using the information gained from the MTS investigations.The mechanical properties of these new steels have been determined and the rail performance tests are being conducted using laboratory-scale evaluation.Ultimately,these new rail steels will be tested under commercial conditions on the TTCI test track in Pueblo,Colorado.This paper will report on the alloy and processing design and resulting properties of the steels developed in this research program.Guidelines for future rail compositions and processing to obtain improved properties and performance will be presented.

Modern Microalloyed Steels

The addition of microalloying elements (MAE) to low C-Mn-Si HSLA steels has led to many benefits to the producers,fabricators and end-users.Microstructural improvements such as microstructural refinement,higher dislocation and sub-grain boundary densities and finer M-A-C distributions have led to higher strength,improved toughness and better formability.These improvements can often be traced to the MA addition.In steels for load-bearing applications,the combination of MAE with hardenability additions (Cr,Mo,B,etc.) and lower transformation temperatures has led to much higher strength levels than what were available a few years ago.The resulting nonpolygonal,bainitic and martensitic ferrite microstructures have not only higher strengths but also adequate levels of improved ductility and toughness.Hot strip,plate and pipe applications have benefitted from these developments.Similar improvements have been found in the microalloyed forging steels,where the change from pearlite-ferrite to bainitic ferrite microstructures has led to higher strengths and improved high-cycle fatigue resistance,with little penalty in ductility and toughness.In the cold rolled gauges,both the so-called Advanced High Strength Steels (DP,TRIP and Complex Phase Steels) and the martensitic direct-quenched and press-quenched steels,along with the Interstitial-Free steels,have benefited from MAE additions,especially in the very popular zinc-coated sheet form.This paper will briefly review each of these topic areas,and the underlying physical metallurgy will be discussed.