During recent years significant research and development aimed at RCF of rails has been conducted, motivated by the more frequent occurrence of RCF experienced by railways.
Further, the way in which the UIC Leaflet 721, 2nd edition has been employed varies between Infrastructure Managers across Europe.
This new knowledge also included a systematic approach to combine the experience from the current operational situation and respective degradation models.
Due to the new findings steels with a hardness ≥ 350 HBW may be installed also in curves with larger radii than previously recommended.
This leaflet gives an overview on the topic of rail grade selection. For more detailed information on specific topics, please refer to the bibliography.

Summary 1

1 - Introduction 2

2 - Rail defects influencing steel grade selection 3

2.1 - Wear (UlC-defect code 220) 3

2.2 - Plastic deformation (UlC-defect code 223 and 224) 3

2.3 - Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) 4

3 - Criteria for determining steel grade selection 6

3.1 - Economic criteria 6

3.2 - Technical criteria 6

3.3 - Rail maintenance 8

4 - Recommendation for the use of steel grades 10

5- Outlook 12

List of abbreviations 13

Bibliography 14

中国标准化研究院国家标准馆