An Investigation to the Behavior of Fatigue Crack and Rail Selection for High-Speed

The rolling tests of railway rail were performed using a JD-1 wheel/rail simulation facility without any lubricant. The failure behaviour of rail rollers with different materials, was investigated in detail by examining wear volume and wear scar using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The results indicate that rail material with a high hardness appears less plastic flow after rolling test. When the plastic flow is small, the wear resistance of material appears better. However, the crack propagation is more significant and fatigue damage is more severe. There is a mutual competitive relationship between wear and surface fatigue crack. A high wear rate can reduce rolling contact fatigue damage by removing constantly surface cracks. The analysis shows that U71Mn rail is more suitable for the high-speed railway.