Structural stability of austenitic surfacing welds of rail profiles part II (experiment)

The paper presents results of experimental annealing of heterogeneous welded joints where the standard type of pearlitic rail steel was used as a parent material and the high-alloyed austenitic steel as the surfaced weld metal. The evaluation of caused effects is based on the metallographic observation with an aid of hardness measurement in critical regions and following conversion of orientation for the measured hardness changes to carbon concentration changes in comparison with the initial chemical content on the weld boundary. The performed experiments follow the results of introductory simulating calculations; the submitted results confirmed tendency of the joint towards the up-hill carbon redistribution with inception of considerable concentration and structural heterogeneity on the fusion line. The most conspicuous carbon redistribution can be expected in temperature range close to the eutectoid temperature.