Since the beginning of the railway industry, one of the most serious mechanical failures of critical components has been the fatigue failure of axles. About half of these fatigue failures initiate in the axle’s main body between the wheel seats due to surface damage and about half initiate in the wheel seat and journal filet areas due to corrosion and fretting. Fatigue cracks in the axle body almost always initiate at surface damage such as scratches, dents, and gouges (e.g., due to ballast impact, improper handling, etc.) where bending stresses are greatest. Efforts to improve axle fatigue life have focused on developing new, more fatigue-resistant steel grades; increasing the body diameter to reduce operating stresses; and modifying the properties (most notably near the axle surface) of the steel through heat treatment. The new process described in this paper improves an axle’s resistance to fatigue failure by imparting a refined microstructure and beneficial compressive residual stress to just the body without additional alloy enhancements or design changes. A 35% increase in fatigue strength and 47% increase in near-surface yield strength over standard Grade F axles have been obtained while also achieving modest improvements in ductility.
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2012 Joint Rail Conference
April 17–19, 2012
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Rail Transportation Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4465-6
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
A New Process for Imparting Fatigue Damage Resistance to Railway Axles
Jay Galbraith,
Jay Galbraith
Standard Steel, LLC, Burnham, PA
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Steven Dedmon,
Steven Dedmon
Standard Steel, LLC, Burnham, PA
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Michael Eckenrode,
Michael Eckenrode
Standard Steel, LLC, Burnham, PA
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James Pilch
James Pilch
Standard Steel, LLC, Burnham, PA
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Jay Galbraith
Standard Steel, LLC, Burnham, PA
Steven Dedmon
Standard Steel, LLC, Burnham, PA
Michael Eckenrode
Standard Steel, LLC, Burnham, PA
James Pilch
Standard Steel, LLC, Burnham, PA
Paper No:
JRC2012-74047, pp. 205-211; 7 pages
Published Online:
July 18, 2013
Citation
Galbraith, J, Dedmon, S, Eckenrode, M, & Pilch, J. "A New Process for Imparting Fatigue Damage Resistance to Railway Axles." Proceedings of the 2012 Joint Rail Conference. 2012 Joint Rail Conference. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. April 17–19, 2012. pp. 205-211. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2012-74047
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