Numerical simulation of controlled cooling of rails as a tool for optimal design of this process

Maciej Pietrzyk¹ , Roman Kuziak²

¹AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland.
²Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy, K. Miarki 12, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7494/cmms.2012.4.0400

Abstract:

The model of controlled cooling of rails is presented in the paper. Model predicts temperature field during cooling, kinetics of phase transformations, microstructural parameters and mechanical properties of the product. Identification of the phase transformation model was performed on the basis of dilatometric tests and inverse analysis. Optimization task was formulated with the objective of searching for the cooling process parameters, which give as low as possible interlamellar spacing in pearlite, microstructure free of bainite and uniform hardness distribution in the rail head. The sensitivity analysis was performed and the following parameters were selected as the optimization variables: time of the 1st stage of fast cooling by immersing in the polymer solution, time of the second stage of cooling in air, depth of the immersion in the polymer solution and heat transfer coefficient between the rail head and the polymer solution.

Cite as:

Pietrzyk, M., & Kuziak, R. (2012). Numerical simulation of controlled cooling of rails as a tool for optimal design of this process. Computer Methods in Materials Science, 12(4), 233 – 243. https://doi.org/10.7494/cmms.2012.4.0400

Article (PDF):

Keywords:

Heat treatment of rails, Pearlite, Hase transformations modelling, Temperature field modelling, Mechanical

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