Assessment of fatigue crack length of rail steels

Abstract

This paper is to discuss the principle of fatigue crack length behaviour. The fatigue testing method was done at Physical Metallurgy Lab of Research & Development Centre for Iron and Steel (RDCIS), SAIL, Ranchi to know the utilization of fatigue properties of RAIL STEELS. Samples were produced by SAIL at Bhilai Steel Plant. In addition to the fatigue test, other tests including hardness, metallographic and EDS were also conducted. After the fatigue test, fractured surface were also observed under scanning electron microscope (SEM) to understand the mode of fracture and any stress raiser such as inclusion or other imperfection present.