Experimental Study on Non-proportional Multiaxial Strain Cyclic Characteristics and Ratcheting of U71Mn Rail Steel

An experimental study was carried out on the strain cyclic characteristics and ratcheting of U71Mn rail steel subjected to non-proportional multiaxial cyclic loading. The strain cyclic characteristics were researched under the strain-controlled circular load path. The ratcheting was investigated for the stress-controlled multiaxial circular, elliptical and rhombic load paths with different mean stresses, stress amplitudes and their histories. The experiment shows that U71Mn rail steel features the cyclic non-hardening/softening, and its strain cyclic characteristics depend greatly on the strain amplitude but slightly on its history. However, the ratcheting of U71Mn rail steel depends greatly not only on the values of mean stress and stress amplitude, but also on their histories. In the meantime, the shape of load path and its history also apparently influence the ratcheting. The ratcheting changes with the different loading paths.