Development and Modeling of Differentially Heat-Strengthened Rail Welding: Welding and Local Heat Treatment Modeling

During the manufacturing of continuous welded rail track, the problem of the local hardened points in the welded joint during rail joint welding is resolved by using local heat treatment of the welded joint. As a result, the quenching structure formation is excluded. However, the appearance of new heat-affected zones with reduced hardness is possible. During operation, such rails are characterized by increased tread surface wear in these areas and rail flattening at the welded joint, which is the main reason for retiring the rails from service earlier than the guaranteed service life. A new technology based on the dependence of the structural component dispersion (primarily perlite and carbide particles formed in the process of rail butt welding) is proposed for the steel composition and cooling conditions. The cooling rate has a decisive influence on the dispersion degree of the ferrite-cementite structure formed during the austenite decomposition. During the welding rail process, the granular perlite formation is possible in a butt weld in areas with a temperature ranging within points Ac 1 and Ac m . To determine these critical temperatures, thermodynamic calculations were performed using the Thermo–Calc® software (TCFE database) allowing the chemical composition of the samples obtained by spectrometry. The iron–carbon state diagrams for rail steel 76KhSF with the minimum and maximum alloying element content according to GOST R 51685–2013 are modeled. To obtain the minimum number of sections with reduced hardness, it is possible to weld rails using shot discontinuous flash welding. In order to eliminate the formation of defective areas with a quenching structure, it is possible to control the cooling of the welded joint by contact heating. Temperature distribution measurement during welding according to given modes and controlled cooling confirms the theoretical conclusions.