Residual strain–stress in manganese steel railway crossing determined by synchrotron and laboratory X-rays

Abstract

The residual stress within the nose of a worn manganese steel railway crossing was investigated. The macroscopic residual stress at the running surface was determined in areas with and without visual faults by laboratory X-rays. To get information about the penetration depth of the residual stress, synchrotron X-ray diffraction was used to map the distribution of local (within grain) residual strains below the running surface. The laboratory X-ray measurements revealed significant compressive stress on the rail running surface. The synchrotron measurements documented that local strains exist through the entire depth investigated. Relations between residual stress, plastic deformation, and crack formation are analysed, leading to a discussion on potentials/limitations of the two experimental methods for investigations of residual stress in large engineering components.

KEYWORDS:

• Residual stress
• differential aperture synchrotron diffraction
• X-ray diffraction
• manganese steel
• switches and crossings
• rolling contact fatigue

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Interreg ESS & MAX IV: Cross Border Science and Society (Project number DTU-009) for supporting this research. Use of the Advanced Photon Source was further supported by the U.S Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC0206CH11357. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Mallipeddi from the Department of Materials and Manufacturing Technology at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden for help doing the laboratory X-ray measurements. DJ and YZ further wish to acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 788567-M4D).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank Interreg ESS & MAX IV: Cross Border Science and Society [Project number DTU-009] for supporting this research. Use of the Advanced Photon Source was further supported by the U.S Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [Contract No. DE-AC0206CH11357]. DJ and YZ further wish to acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [grant agreement number 788567-M4D].