Application of Neutron Diffraction Technique to Industrial Materials

As an important industrial problem, the rolling contact fatigue damage is accumulated in rails during the repeated passage of trains over the rails, and rail failures may occur from the cracks grown in the rails. In order to prevent such rail failures, the estimation of the behavior of internal rail cracks is required based on the exact engineering analysis model as well as conducting rail test to search rail defects. The purposes of this paper are to apply the neutron stress measurement to rails, and to obtain residual stress state in the rails for the above purpose. The rail samples used were those that have been used in service line in Japan for about six years (222 million gross tons). The neutron measurement was conducted using the Residual Stress Analyzer (RESA) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). The present measurement of stresses in rails by the neutron diffraction method was the first attempt in Japan.