Comparative analysis of the structure and properties of hypereutectoid railway rails

Due to the constant increase in axial loads and the weight of rolling stock intended for passenger and freight heavy traffic, more stringent requirements are being put forward by consumers of rail products. The pearlite-grade carbon steels currently used for the industrial production of rails have high consumer properties, namely, resistance to wear and the formation of contact and fatigue defects, which makes it possible to ensure operability in a wide range of operational and climatic conditions along the entire length of the railway network. An important technical task is to establish the patterns of formation of the microstructure of rails depending on the chemical composition of steel and influence of the structure on properties of the finished products. One of the main parameters determining the structure and consumer properties of pearlite steel railway rails is the size of the interlamellar spacing. Improving the operational stability of rails is one of the main tasks of the specia­lists of JSC EVRAZ ZSMK, the Kuzbass Metallurgical Plant, one of the five largest manufacturers of railway rails in the world. The results of a comparative analysis of chemical composition, size of the interlamellar spacing, as well as the strength and plastic properties of the metal of pearlite-class railway rails are presented. In accordance with GOST R 51685-2022, 90KhAF steel is hypereutectoid in terms of carbon content. As a result of the conducted research, the relationships between parameters of the structure and the physico-mechanical properties of rails, as well as between content of the main chemical elements in steel and the interlamellar spacing of perlite, were established.