The failure analysis of a broken railway pearlitic cast steel railway wheel, which was involved in a train derailment, has been investigated. The railway accident occured during the transportation of iron ore. The train was composed of approximately 200 cars, from which 46 cars ended up derailing. The investigated wheel was part of the car No. 143, identified as the 18th derailed car. Two self-excluding hypotheses have been formulated to explain the fracture of the wheel: 1. The wheel broke prematurely by a low stress fracture and caused the train accident; 2. the wheel broke by a general yield fracture as a consequence of the train accident. The fractographic results near the fracture origin of the wheel have been compared to the regions of stable (fatigue) and unstable crack propagation of cast steel fracture toughness samples. The macro and micro-fractographic features of the broken wheel did not show any evidence of the occurrence of a fatigue mechanism, indicating that its fracture was caused by transgranular cleavage fracture, as a consequence of the train derailment.
Failure analysis of a cast steel railway wheel
Fehleranalyse eines Stahlguss-Eisenbahnrades
Engineering Failure Analysis ; 11 , 6 ; 817-828
2004
12 Seiten, 10 Bilder, 15 Quellen
Article (Journal)
English