Abstract
This study is aimed at the deterioration of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) life of pearlitic rail steel, under rolling-sliding conditions, where the wet phase of the test is preceded by different numbers of dry cycles. It is shown that initial dry cycles above a critical number causes sudden and significant deterioration in RCF life. This effect has been explained using the argument of plastic strain accumulation (ratchetting) in the surface layer during the dry phase when the coefficient of friction is above 0.25. A strong correlation was found between the degree of ratchetting and the deterioration in RCF life. An empirical relationship to estimate this deterioration was concluded.
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