Comparison of Rail Head Checks Using Destructive and Non-Destructive Examination Methods

The development of railway transportation requires increased vehicle speeds and axle loads. The enhanced effects from the vehicle side and the new harder steel rails used in tracks lead to increased Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) crack initiation and propagation. One of the most frequently occurring RCF defects is the Head Checks (HC) around the rails’ gauge corner. These defects cause severe economic and safety issues. In-use maintenance is based on corrective and preventive approaches, which are neither cost-effective nor reliable. The development of new predictive methods and the improvement of the existing corrective and preventive approaches offer a solution to this issue. In this investigation, an HC-infected rail sample was examined with non-destructive Dye Penetration Testing, Eddy-current Testing, and Visual Microscopic Testing after the sectioning of the sample. In the future, an extensive HC database can be created from the results of the developed evaluation process, which may serve as the base validation tool for newly developed predictive maintenance methods.