Abstract—The evolution of the structure and defect substructure of rail steel during uniaxial compression to a reduction of 50% is studied. The strain hardening is found to have a multistage character and to be accompanied by fragmentation of pearlite grains, which increases with the strain. An increase in the strain is accompanied by a decrease in the scalar and excess dislocation densities. Cementite plates are found to undergo destruction via their dissolution and cutting by mobile dislocations.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
A. A. Yuriev, Yu. F. Ivanov, V. E. Gromov, Yu. A. Rubannikova, M. D. Starostenkov, and P. Y. Tabakov, Structure and Properties of Lengthy Rails after Extreme Long-Term Operation (Materials Research Forum LLC, Millersville, 2021).
Y. Wang, Y. Tomota, S. Harjo, W. Gong, and T. Ohmuraa, “In- situ neutron diffraction during tension-compression cyclic deformation of a pearlite steel,” Mater. Sci. Eng., A 676, 522–530 (2016).
R. Pan, R. Ren, C. Chen, and X. Zhao, “Formation of nanocrystalline structure in pearlitic steels by dry sliding wear,” Mater. Charact. 132, 397–404 (2017).
M. W. Kapp, A. Hohenwarter, S. Wurster, B. Yang, and R. Pippan, “Anisotropic deformation characteristics of an ultrafine- and nanolamellar pearlitic steel,” Acta Mater. 106, 239–248 (2016).
D. Raabe and R. Kumar, “Tensile deformation characteristics of bulk ultrafine-grained austenitic stainless steel produced by thermal cycling,” Scr. Materialia. 66, 634–637 (2012).
M. K. Skakov, G. K. Uazyrkhanova, N. A. Popova, and M. Scheffler, “Influence of heat treatment and deformation on the phase-structural state of steel 30CrMnSiA,” Key Eng. Mater. 531–532, 13–17 (2013).
J. Zrnik, S. Dobatkin, G. Raab, M. Fujda, and L. Kraus, “Ultrafine grain structure development in steel with different initial structure by severe plastic deformation,” Revista Materia 15 (2), 240–246 (2010).
T. Takahashi, I. Ochiai, H. Tashiro, S. Ohashi, S. Nishida, and T. Tarui, “Strengthening of steel wire for tire cord,” Nippon Steel Tech. Report 64, 45–49 (1995).
Y. Zhao, Y. Tan, X. Ji, Z. Xiang, and S. Xiang, “In situ study of cementite deformation and its fracture mechanism in pearlitic steels,” Mater. Sci. Eng., A 731, 93–101 (2018).
H. Yahyaoui, H. Sidhom, C. Braham, and A. Bacz-manski, “Effect of interlamellar spacing on the elastoplastic behavior of C70 pearlitic steel: experimental results and self-consistent modeling,” Mater. Design 55, 888–897 (2014).
M. Ekh, N. Larijani, E. Dartfeldt, M. Kapp, and R. Pippan, “Prediction of the mechanical behaviour of pearlitic steel based on microcompression tests, micromechanical models and homogenization approaches,” Eur. J. Mech.: A. Solids 67, 272–279 (2018).
Y. J. Li, P. Choi, C. Borchers, S. Westerkamp, S. Goto, D. Raabe, and R. Kirchheim, “Atomic-scale mechanisms of deformation-induced cementite decomposition in pearlite,” Acta Mater. 59, 3965–3977 (2011).
H. Yahyaoui, H. Sidhom, C. Braham, and A. Bacz-manski, “Effect of interlamellar spacing on the elastoplastic behavior of C70 pearlitic steel: experimental results and self-consistent modeling,” Mater. Design 55, 888–897 (2014).
F. R. Egerton, Physical Principles of Electron Microscopy (Springer, Basel, 2016).
C. S. S. R. Kumar, Transmission Electron Microscopy. Characterization of Nanomaterials (Springer, New York, 2014).
C. B. Carter and D. B. Williams, Transmission Electron Microscopy (Springer, Berlin, 2016).
P. Hirsch, A. Howie, R. Nicholson, D. Pashley, and M. Whelan, Electron Microscopy of Thin Crystals (Plenum, New York, 1967).
N. A. Koneva, D. V. Lychagin, L. A. Teplyakova, and E. V. Kozlov, “Crystal lattice rotation and the stages of plastic deformation,” in Experimental Study and Theoretical Description of Disclinations (FTI, Leningrad, 1984), pp. 161–164.
U. F. Kocks and H. Mesking, “Physics and phenomenology of strain hardening: the FCC case,” Prog. Mater. Sci. 48, 171–279 (2003).
Yu. N. Podrezov and S. A. Firstov, “Two approaches to an analysis of stress–strain curves,” Fiz. Tekh. Vys. Davl. 16 (4), 37–48 (2006).
V. I. Trefilov, V. F. Moiseev, E. P. Pechkovskii, and I. D. Gornaya, Strain Hardening and Fracture of Polycrystalline Materials (Naukova Dumka, Kiev, 1989).
V. N. Gridnev and V. G. Gavrilyuk, “Decomposition of cementite during plastic deformation,” Metallofiz. 4 (3), 74–87 (1982).
E. V. Kozlov, N. A. Popova, and N. A. Koneva, “Scalar dislocation density in fragments with different types of substructure,” Pis’ma Mater. 1, 15–18 (2011).
L. M. Utevskii, Diffraction Electron Microscopy in Physical Metallurgy (Metallurgiya, Moscow, 1973).
Yu. F. Ivanov, V. E. Gromov, and E. N. Nikitina, Bainite Constructional Steel: Structure and Properties (CISP, Cambridge, 2016).
Yu. F. Ivanov, E. V. Kornet, E. V. Kozlov, and V. E. Gromov, Hardened Structural Steel: Structure and Hardening Mechanisms (Izd. SibGIU, Novokuznetsk, 2010).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank E.V. Polevoi for providing the rail steel specimens and N.A. Popova for helpful discussions.
Funding
This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 19-32-60001) and a scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists and postgraduates engaged in promising research and development in priority areas of modernization of the Russian economy (project no. SP-4517.2021.1).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Translated by K. Shakhlevich
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ivanov, Y.F., Gromov, V.E., Aksenova, K.V. et al. Evolution of the Structure of Rail Steel during Compression. Russ. Metall. 2022, 1192–1197 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0036029522100354
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0036029522100354