STEELCHALLENGE-14

Tracks of railway lines are made of special rail steel grades. Within this case study a rail steel
grade is to be produced in the EAF with subsequent treatment in secondary steelmaking to
reach the required melt composition and quality. The steel grade to be produced is used in
high speed and mixed traffic applications and based on the R260 grade. To improve the
properties chromium is added to the steel leading to steel grade R260Cr or 1.0911.

• The basket #1 for the EAF must have a minimum level of 30 m3. Baskets can be used
only in sequence (Basket #1 first, then basket #2, and finally basket #3).

• The decarburization is not possible under the mathematical model used in the EAF. It is
possible to decarburize only in the secondary steelmaking.

• The oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen level will always be the same at tapping of the EAF
regardless of what was done during the EAF steelmaking.

O N H
0.05 0.008 0.0002
To be able to withstand the cyclic heavy load of trains running on the tracks, rail steels have
to meet some basic requirements:

- High yield strength, toughness/tensile strength and hardness,

- High wear resistance,

- High fatigue strength,

- High resistance to brittle fracture,

- High resistance to deformation caused by compression,

- High degree of steel purity and good texture,

- Low residual stresses after manufacturing and straightening,

- Good weldability.

Some of these requirements are contradicting each other. Nevertheless, they can usually be
achieved by steel composition and thermal processing of the rails taking the specific
application like curve radius or load of the tracks into regard.

The required properties of rail steels are achieved through control of the carbon and
manganese level in the steel. Carbon levels of rail steels can go up to 0.82 % and manganese
levels can be as high as 1.7 %. Standard rails are made of steel with a pearlitic microstructure
containing about 0.7% C and about 1% Mn, which is also called C-Mn rail steel or grade R260.

Hardness and strength of the rail steel is controlled by the microstructure of the steel, which
in turn can be controlled by cooling rates during heat treatment. These cooling rates of hot
rails especially influence the inter-lamellar spacing or fineness of the pearlitic microstructure.
Another way of improving hardness and strength is the addition of alloying elements like
chromium or nickel. A combination of alloying and heat treatment is possible and a range of
grades can be produced.

Rails also have to be free from internal cracks which can be caused by hydrogen induced
cracking. Therefore, during steel production hydrogen levels need to be reduced of the liquid
steel before it is cast or by very slow cooling of the hot rolled rails.

Rail steels should also be resistant to fatigue or surface cracking so that rails can have a long
service life. But rails not only wear, they can break also. The inherent toughness of rail steel
is poor as a result of the presence of the brittle carbide phase. Fracture can occur from
relatively minor stress concentrating features inside the rail or on the surface due to

steelChallenge 14 Case Study 2

manufacturing defects like inclusions or handling damage. To reduce wear and to avoid
fractures, high steel cleanness is required for rail steels.

The above-mentioned requirements led to the following aspects which are considered in the
production of rail steels:

- Accurate control of the chemistry of the rail steel with carbon, manganese and other
alloying elements at optimum level,

- Control of low levels of the potential embrittling compounds such as sulphur,

phosphorus, nitrogen and hydrogen etc,

- Production of clean steel with low to very low number of stress-concentrating

entrapped inclusions from the steel making and casting process.

steelChallenge 14 Case Study 3

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