Fatigue crack growth of bainitic rail steel welds

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to develop and evaluate novel weld repairs of bainitic rail steel defects, such as detail fracture, induced by in service loading. Slots were machined in the bainitic rail steel to simulate the removal of service defects. Multipass gas metal arc welding was used to fill and repair the slots. Three-point bend tests of the parent and welded steels revealed that the flexural weld efficiency was 75%. Fatigue crack propagation (FCP) tests were performed on specimens from the welded joints and compared with the parent materials to determine the mechanical integrity of the slot repairs. The fatigue lifetime and FCP kinetics were similar for the parent and slot welded bainitic steels, indicating similar resistance to FCP. The fatigue fracture surface morphology of the parent and welded bainitic rail steels both revealed mostly a ductile fracture mechanism in all the three FCP stages.