Evolution of the Lamellar Pearlite Structure of Rail Steel under Tension

Abstract

In this paper, the properties of rail steel subjected to fracture under uniaxial tension deformation are studied. Mechanical properties of rail steel, defective substructure of lamellar pearlite, and fracture surface of rail steel are investigated using methods of modern physical materials science. Tensile strength is found to vary from 1247 to 1335 MPa, and the fracture strain of the samples changes from 0.22 to 0.26. The deformation of the rail steel is accompanied by the process of breaking the ferrite plates into fragments by low angle boundaries along with the significant increase in the scalar dislocation density to 7.9-1010 cm-2 (the scalar dislocation density of the original rail steel is 3.2 -1010 cm-2). Also, there is a formation of internal stress fields appearing in the form of bend extinction contours. The sources of stress fields are identified. It is revealed that cementite plates are fractured by cutting and dissolution with subsequent transfer of carbon to ferrite plates by moving dislocations and formation of round-shaped nanodimensional (8.3 nm) round shaped particles of tertiary cementite. It is shown that the dissolution of cementite plates is accompanied by fragmentation (into coherent scattering regions with an average size of 9.3 nm).