Structural Phase Transformation of Rail Steel in Compression

The analysis of structure and defective substructure rail steel in uniaxial compression to a degree 50% is carried out. It revealed that cold hardening has multi-stage character accompanied by fragmentations pearlite grains which field as the deformation increases reaches ≈ 0.4 volume foil studied at ε = 50%. fragments being formed ferrite plates are separated low-angle boundaries. average size fragmented decreases from 240 nm 15% 200 Concurrently with fragmentation, cementite also observed. found sizes range 15 20 depend weakly on sample deformation. fragmentation caused deformation-induced carbon dissolution dislocation-induced fracture. atoms diffuse crystal dislocations, move through an interplanar space form particles tertiary nanoscale (2–4 nm). increase decrease scalar excess dislocation density. A physical interpretation observations been given.