Microstructural Evaluation of Wheel Steel Using Simulated Service Thermal Loads

The service thermal history of a wheel is often unknown. With today’s high braking energies, knowing the thermal history can make analysis of a failure a simpler process. These histories can also provide thermal input data for process simulations to assist an investigator in understanding the complex interactions in developing residual stresses. This investigation provides a semi-quantitative tool to evaluate the degree of thermal exposure to which a wheel has been exposed by simulating temperature exposures and how they affect microstructure.