Failure Analysis of Railway Power Car

MME 442 – Failure of Materials & Artefact Study Mudasserul Islam

Presentation 01 1811036
Introduction
• A vehicle that propels, and controls a train or tram often as the lead vehicle
• A vehicle equipped with machinery for supplying heat or electrical power to other parts of a
train
• A special type of locomotive or engine that can carry payloads or passengers in its interior space
• Locomotive can be electric, diesel, diesel-electric, etc.

Diesel locomotive components

 Failure Analysis of Railway Power Car Wheel
Basic Information about Power Car Wheel:
• Pearlitic-ferritic steels are predominantly used for railway wheels
• Heat treated by the rim hardening process
• High-strength rim & flexible centre
• Optimal compromise between mechanical properties, wear resistance and thermal stability

Visual Inspection:

The view of investigated sample of monoblock wheel

 Surface wear & crack

 Plastic deformation
 Soft surface
Optical Microscopy:

Undeformed Deformed
 Microstructure in all cases is ferrite-pearlite
 No martensite formation
 Tiny flaws appear on the surface
 Ratcheting failure is not like low cycle fatigue
• spheroiditic appearance of pearlite near the tread
surface
• The pro-eutectoid ferrite is not continuous but extends
around the pearlite nodules
• strain into the ferrite phase and at the same time
produces fractures in the cementite phase
SEM:

Crack initiation along border of strained and flattened pro-eutectoid ferrite (arrowed)

• The shear deformation at the surface causes the brittle cementite to break
• allows the softer ferrite to be worn away.
• In the outermost layer a bended structure was seen
• Cracks tend to initiate within pro-eutectoid ferrite
• Grow along the direction of the aligned sheared microstructure
• No martensite was observed on the deformed surface layer of the wheel.
• deformation was seen to cause thermodynamic instability at elevated temperatures
 Scanning electron micrographs of the wheel rim surface. The ferrite and pearlite at the wheel rim surface
undergoes severe plastic deformation. Crack propagation in sub-surface zone of maximum strain with the crack
‘jumping’ along the edges of flattened pro-eutectoid ferrite zones

• The material in the wheel tread undergoes continuous plastic deformation and thermal exposure in
service.
• Softening caused by cementite spheroidisation in the pearlitic materials leads to changes in the
mechanical behavior
 Conclusion

 optical and scanning micrograph observations were used to investigate the

 plastic deformation and the effect of softening near the surface of the worn railway wheel
 material in the contact surface of the wheel undergoes severe plastic deformation
 heat generation of the wheel material in the outermost layer
 recovery or recrystallization processes, breakdown, and spheroidisation of cement plates
 decrease the hardness of the wheel tread
 rail–wheel contact introduces strain into the ferrite phase
 Produces fractures in the cementite phase beneath the contact surface
 Crack initiation primarily occurs along the highly strained, pro-eutectoid ferrite boundaries
 pro-eutectoid ferrite zones also facilitate crack propagation