Fatigue Properties Improvement of Low-Carbon Alloy Axle Steel by Induction Hardening and Shot Peening: A Prospective Comparison

Fatigue fracture is the major threat to railway axle, which can be avoided or delayed by surface strengthening. In this study, a low-carbon alloy axle steel with two states was treated induction hardening and shot peening, respectively, reveal mechanism of fatigue property improvement microstructure characterization, microhardness measurement, residual stress analysis, roughness rotary bending tests. The results indicate that both quenching tempering treatment effectively improve properties modified steel. addition, create an ideal hardened layer on sample phase transformation from ferrite pearlite martensite. By comparison, peening modify in severe plastic deformation introducing large number dislocation even cause grain refinement. Both compressive into sample, reduce level applied metal during On whole, contribution life better than shows obvious advantages improving