Rail defects: an overview

For about 150 years, the steel rail has been at the very heart of the world's railway systems. The rail works in a harsh environment and, as part of the track structure, it has little redundancy; thus, its failure may lead to catastrophic derailment of vehicles, the consequences of which can include death, injury, costs and loss of public confidence. These can have devastating and long‐lasting effects on the industry. Despite the advances being made in railway permanent way engineering, inspection and rail‐making technology, continually increasing service demands have resulted in rail failure continuing to be a substantial economic burden and a threat to the safe operation of virtually every railway in the world. This paper presents an overview of rail defects and their consequences from the earliest days of railways to the present day.     

表面致密化--一种提高烧结齿轮性能的有效方法

表面致密化与传统的粉末冶金方法相结合，可以显著改善烧结齿轮的疲劳及表面磨损性能。从而提高齿轮的寿命，同时使生产高性能齿轮的总成本降低，为用粉末冶金(PM)方法生产汽车变速箱齿轮提供了更大的可能性。本文着重讲述了使用这种方法生产高性能PM齿轮的工艺过程，同时介绍了测定致密化效果及齿轮性能的几种主要方法，并根据工艺过程比较了使用传统的机加工方法及本文所述的方法生产同性能齿轮的成本差别。最后，以两个实例分别介绍了使用上述方法对Volvo 850系第五挡变速齿轮及Scania载重车变速箱中行星齿轮的研发。     

高压电容器不平衡保护的相关问题

电容器不平衡保护直接反应电容器内部元件的损坏情况,是高压电容器保护中最重要的保护功能之一。文中结合南方电网平果／河池／百色串补及天广／高肇直流工程实际,分析了电容器不平衡保护中的电流互感器的配置、选型及匹配问题,总结、比较了目前普遍使用的高压电容器不平衡检测原理以及不平衡保护定值计算中需要注意的问题。     

Decision on economical rail grinding interval for controlling rolling contact fatigue

Rail players around the world have been increasing axle loads to improve the productivity of freight and heavy haul operations. This has increased the risk of surface cracks at curves because of rolling contact fatigue. Rail grinding has been considered an effective process for controlling these cracks and reducing risks of rail breaks. The complexity of deciding the optimal rail grinding intervals for improving the reliability and safety of rails is because of insufficient understanding of the various factors involved in the crack initiation and propagation process. This paper focuses on identifying the factors influencing rail degradation, developing models for rail failures and analyzing the costs of various grinding intervals for economic decision making. Various costs involved in rail maintenance, such as rail grinding, downtime, inspection, rail failures and derailment, and replacement of worn‐out rails, are incorporated into the total cost model developed in this paper. Field data from the rail industry have been used for illustration.     

Rolling contact fatigue and mechanical properties of titanium carbide film synthesized on bearing steel surface

The effect of plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIII&D) titanium carbide (TiC) film on the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) life of coated on AISI52100 bearing steel surface is studied experimentally. Testing include plan-view optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), friction and wear behaviors, rolling contact fatigue life and nano-indentation measurements. XRD patterns show that titanium carbide phase is formed in the film, and the microhardness of treated samples is higher than that of substrate. Rolling contact fatigue failure tracks were observed using conventional light microscope. Surface wear and adhesive delamination existed. Results indicate that the maximum RCF life of the treated sample prolong by 6.5 times at a Hertzian stress level of 5.1 GPa and 90% confidence level, respectively. Comparison with the substrate, the maximum microhardness of treated specimen is increased by 28.4%. The friction coefficient decreased from 0.95 to 0.15 under identical wear conditions. This remarkable fatigue performance appears to be due to a combination of improved microstructure, adhesion, hardness and surface topography. Therefore, the PIII&D is regarded as one of the promising technologies for improving the RCF life of bearing.     

轴承钢滚动接触疲劳研究进展

对轴承钢的滚动接触疲劳领域的研究重点、研究方法和研究进展进行了综合性的阐述。首先分析了滚动接触条件下材料内赫兹应力的分布以及轴承钢对循环应力的响应,解释了轴承钢发生次表面疲劳的根本原因;接着对轴承钢疲劳测试的方法进行了总结,分析了各种测试方法的优劣势;然后讨论了影响轴承钢滚动接触疲劳寿命的关键因素;最后,对轴承钢次表面诱发的滚动接触疲劳的两大表现形式,即疲劳裂纹生长和显微组织退化,进行了系统性阐释,介绍了重要的疲劳机理并提出了未来的重点研究方向。     

Fatigue analysis of railway wheel using a multiaxial strain‐based critical‐plane index

A fatigue damage model to assess the development of subsurface fatigue cracks in railway wheels is presented in this paper. A 3‐dimensional finite element model (FEM) is constructed to simulate repeated cycles of contact loading between a railway wheel and a rail. The computational approach includes a hard‐contact over‐closure relationship and an elastoplastic material model with isotropic and kinematic hardening. Results from the simulation are used in a multiaxial critical‐plane fatigue damage analysis. The employed strain‐based critical‐plane fatigue damage approach is based on Fatemi‐Socie fatigue index that takes into account the non‐proportional and out‐of‐phase nature of the multiaxial state of stress occurs when a railway wheel rolls on a rail. It predicts fatigue‐induced micro‐crack nucleation at a depth of about 3.7 mm beneath the wheel tread, as well as the crack plane growth orientation which indicates the possible failure pattern. Additionally, the influence of various factors such as contribution of normal stresses, higher wheel load, and material model have been investigated.     

Robust Control for Uncertain Nonlinear Feedback Systems Using Operator-based Right Coprime Factorization

The robust control issue for uncertain nonlinear system is discussed by using the method of right coprime factorization. As it is difficult to obtain the inverse of the right factor due to the high nonlinearity, the proving of the Bezout identity becomes troublesome. Therefore, two sufficient conditions are derived to manage this problem with the nonlinear feedback system as well as that with the uncertain nonlinear feedback system under the definition of Lipschitz norm. A simulation of temperature control is given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.      

Effect of Annealing on Virgin and Recycled Carbon Fiber Electrochemically Deposited with N-type Bismuth Telluride and Bismuth Sulfide

N-type thermoelectric bismuth telluride (Bi₂Te₃) and bismuth sulfide (Bi₂S₃) were deposited on virgin carbon fiber (VCF) and recycled carbon fiber (RCF) substrates by electrodeposition. The effects of annealing on the surface morphology and the Seebeck coefficient of the Bi₂Te₃ and Bi₂S₃ films were investigated. A nearly stoichiometric N-type Bi₂Te₃ was obtained from an electrolyte solution of 8 mM of Bi(NO₃)₃.5H₂O and 10 mM of TeO₂, which displayed the highest Seebeck coefficient of ?20.01 and ?13.0 µV/K for VCF and RCF, respectively. The deposition of Bi₂S₃ was slightly off-stoichiometry, but the improvement was still significant with a Seebeck coefficient of ?16.3 and ?12.4 µV/K for VCF and RCF, respectively. The effect of varying the annealing temperature (275°C and 350°C) and annealing time (2 and 3 hours) was studied on a nearly stoichiometric N-type Bi₂Te₃. The result shows an improvement in the Seebeck coefficient by 1.51–1.24 times at 350°C for 2 hours.