A Novel Carbide-Free Bainitic Heavy-Haul Wheel Steel with an Excellent Wear-Resistance under Rolling-Sliding Condition

Abstract

With the rapid development of railways towards high speed and larger carrying capacity, the problem of wear and fatigue damage between wheel/rail is gradually becoming serious. However, traditional pearlite wheel/rail has reached the limit, which leads to more attention to developing a novel wheel/rail material. This study aims to report a novel carbide-free bainite wheel steel. The wear-resistance of novel steel was tested by a rolling-sliding wear experiment under heavy-haul condition and investigated the impacts of the running speeds on the damage mechanism of wear and fatigue. The results show that the yield strength of the bainite wheel was as high as 950 MPa and the hardness was 415 HV, which was superior to most of the reported typical wheel steel. During the process of wear, the surface damage of the wheel was mainly adhesive wear and fatigue damage, and the gradient strain layer (GS layer) was formed on the wheel surface. As the running speed increased, fatigue damage gradually became more serious than adhesive wear, and the shear stress and strain of the GS layer were enhanced. The higher thickness and hardening were produced on the GS layer, which is the main reason for the higher wear-resistance of the bainitic wheel under higher running speeds. In addition, the wear-resistance of the novel wheel steel was better than that of the reported wheel steel. This novel bainitic wheel is a promising wheel for heavy-haul condition applications, which could provide a guide in choosing bainitic wheel steel for the railway.