Analyse of warm surface rolling on the grooved steel axle

Abstract

Warm surface rolling is a working process between room temperature and re-crystallization temperature. With warm surface rolling of steel grade 45 grooved axle, its fatigue lifespan was measured by the endurance bending test. The influence of surface rolling reduction on the axle fatigue life period was experimentally studied at different surface rolling temperatures. The experimental results show that the fatigue life of the steel axles can be significantly improved by the warm surface rolling process. The optimum rolling reductions for the maximum fatigue life at different warm surface rolling temperatures were explored. The microstructures of the steel axles were analyzed. The surface strength improved by refining grains after the warm surface rolling was calculated by the Hall-Petch model. These research achievements could be also valuable to the relevant works.