Abstract The rail, as the most important component in railways, needs to be routinely checked to maintain proper service conditions to prevent catastrophic accidents by any premature failure of the rail. The severe plastic deformation of rails due to cyclic wheel/rail contact forces forms a superficial deformed layer, referred to as the white etching layer, because of cementite decomposition and the formation of the carbon-supersaturated nanostructured ferrite phase. This supersaturated superficial layer is highly prone to the initiation and propagation of rolling contact fatigue cracks. However, it has been observed that transition carbides and cementite can precipitate when the first and third stages of tempering starts at approximately 150 and 400 °C, respectively, due to carbon ejection from the body-centered tetragonal structure. A controlled laboratory heat treatment was conducted on a used hypereutectoid rail at 200 and 500 °C. Then, the wear resistances of the heat-treated samples were compared with the as-received rail sample using pin-on-disc testing. A significant increase in the wear resistance of the sample treated at 200 °C confirmed the improvement in the wear resistance of used pearlitic rails, which is a great interest for railway industries.

中文翻译：

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通过热处理提高过共析钢轨的耐磨性

摘要 钢轨作为铁路中最重要的组成部分，需要定期检查以保持正常的使用条件，以防止因钢轨过早失效而造成灾难性事故。由于渗碳体分解和碳过饱和纳米结构铁素体相的形成，由循环轮/轨接触力引起的钢轨严重塑性变形形成表面变形层，称为白色蚀刻层。这种过饱和的表层极易产生滚动接触疲劳裂纹并扩展。然而，已经观察到过渡碳化物和渗碳体可以在第一和第三阶段回火开始时分别在大约 150 和 400 °C 开始沉淀，这是由于碳从体心四方结构中喷射出来的。在 200 和 500 °C 下对使用过的过共析钢轨进行受控的实验室热处理。然后，使用销钉盘测试将热处理样品的耐磨性与收到的钢轨样品进行比较。经 200 °C 处理的样品耐磨性显着提高，证实了使用过的珠光体钢轨的耐磨性有所提高，这引起了铁路行业的极大兴趣。