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ISSN 2753-3239
ISSN 2753-3239
CCC: 1
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE
Edited by: J. Pombo
Paper 21.6
On the variations of white etching layers on railway wheels and the possibilities of imitation in a laboratory
M. Freisinger1, H. Rojacz1, K. Pichelbauer1,
A. Trausmuth1, G. Trummer2, K. Six2 and
P. H. Mayrhofer3
1C2T research GmbH, Wiener Neustadt, Austria
2Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH, Graz, Austria
3Institute of Materials Science and Technology, TU Wien,
Vienna, Austria
Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
M. Freisinger, H. Rojacz, K. Pichelbauer,
A. Trausmuth, G. Trummer, K. Six and
P. H. Mayrhofer, "On the variations of white etching layers
on railway wheels and the
possibilities of imitation in a laboratory", in J. Pombo, (Editor), "Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance",
Civil-Comp Press, Edinburgh, UK,
Online volume: CCC 1, Paper 21.6, 2022, doi:10.4203/ccc.1.21.6
Keywords: rail-wheel contact, near-surface microstructure, white etching layer, laser
treatment, twin disc tester, electron microscopy.
Abstract
Within this paper, different variations of white etching layers (WELs) detected on a
railway wheel from service are investigated. Brightest appearing microstructures,
after etching with Nital acid, show a fine mesh structure and high hardness values of
~ 6 GPa. It is concluded that such microstructures can defined as virgin WEL, where
no thermal or mechanical load affected the WEL after its formation. Further WEL
variations with lower hardness values and differences in the microstructural
characteristics are presented. To imitate these microstructure variations in a
laboratory, which is vital for verifiable testing like 2-disc experiments, a possibility
of using a laser treatment and a twin disc tester is presented. Based on the commonly
known formation process, the laser treatment pictures the thermal loading on the
initial microstructure, whereby the twin disc tester is used to introduce a mechanical
loading. Results show good similarity to the WEL from field in terms of
microstructural characteristics and obtained hardness. Hence, the combination of the
presented methods outpoints a promising possibility to create reproducible and
realistic WEL microstructures.
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