The wide-gap aluminothermic rail welds with root opening of 50-70 mm were produced using plain carbon steel rail and non-alloy aluminothermic charge. Mechanical properties and micro-structure of the weld metal and HAZ as well as the impact energy and the fracture toughness of the welds were investigated. The yield and tensile strength of wide-gap welds were about 98% and 95% of the base metal, ...

In the current study, a thermal model was used to investigate the effects of welding parameters on the distribution of temperature in wide gap aluminothermic rail welds. To solve the governing thermal equation, SUTCAST, a finite difference program (FDM) was employed while different aspects such as phase change and convective heat transfer in weld pool were taken into account in the numerical so...

Aluminothermic rail welding was from the beginning a great success because its low price even in 1895 in Germany. This method is now, widely used all over the world for the railways construction, maintenance and modernization. Instructions give you guidelines for preparing papers for conferences or journals. After 1989, the welding needs of the potentials beneficiaries (Romanian Railways, Urban...

Since its early days the development of railway systems has been an important driving force for technological progress. From the 1840s onward a dense railroad network was spread all over the world. Within a few decades railway became the predominant traffic system carrying a steadily increasing volume of goods and number of passengers. This rapid development was accompanied by substantial devel...

Ultrasonic techniques have been used for many years for the inspection of rail. These measurements can detect the presence of a wide variety of defects but there are practical difficulties with the technology. While large transverse cracks of the type likely to cause catastrophic failure can be detected, the large, critical defects can be masked by large numbers of small, surface defects along ...

Aluminothermic welding has been used to connect railway rails for over a century. This technique the advantages of flexibility, weld compactness, and simplicity. External energy is not required procedure. Exothermic heat produced by chemical reactions aluminothermic elements. To create quality welded connection, mold pouring system must provide uniform hot steel without turbulence, even dissipa...

A previously developed heat transfer model is used to study the influence of welding parameters on weld defect development in thermite welds. Weld defect formation maps are constructed from a series of heat transfer simulations. For the current normal rail thermite welding conditions, it is found that shrinkage cavity formation can be avoided but cold-lap and centre-line defects are likely to o...

The primary mechanisms playing a role in the dynamic wheel–rail response to rail weld irregularities in a ballasted track are pointed out. The concept of P1 and P2 forces for metallurgical rail welds, introduced in a first paper [1] concerning the present research, is further elaborated. The dynamic wheel–rail response is simulated for a number of geometrical rail weld measurements. Results sho...