Investigation on impact wear and damage mechanism of railway rail weld joint and rail materials

The impact wear behaviour and damage mechanism and transitions of rail weld joint and rail materials were explored using a cyclic impact tester under dry conditions. The results indicate that the impact wear volume of rail weld joint and rail material increases with the number of impact cycles or impact force increasing and the resistance to impact wear of rail weld joint is better than that of rail material. The impact wear mapping including three regions is developed and there is a transition zone with an increase in impact number and impact force. Meanwhile, two kinds of pit formed and the different mechanisms are noted. There is a different crack growth path for rail material and rail weld joint due to the different microstructure of materials.