Assessment of plasma sprayed coatings to modify surface friction for railroad applications

For the past hundred years, railroads have been an important means of transportation for passengers and freight. Over the years train traffic, speeds, and loads have increased steadily leading to a more severe wheel/rail environment that exceeds the design limits of the steels thus causing increased wear, decreased rail life, and higher maintenance costs. The cost of controlling friction and the resulting damage is an area of ever-increasing concern. One potential method of modifying friction is by changing the surface properties of the rail. The work reported herein was carried out as part of a larger effort to modify surface friction of rails.; The original focus of this research was to use high velocity air plasma spraying to develop friction enhancing coatings for the rail surface. Using the methodology developed at the Oregon Graduate Institute, the plasma spray parameters were optimized and the coatings were tested on the Amsler machine under rolling/sliding wear conditions to determine viability prior to full scale testing. Stainless steel and composite 1080 steel were investigated as potential materials for increasing friction. Poor results with these coatings shifted the research focus to understanding the durability of the coatings and to failure analysis of initial 1080 steel full scale samples tested by the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing that had failed prematurely. After re-optimization of parameters and preparation methodologies further full scale samples (1080 steel/nylon) were tested and failure analysis was performed. Optical and scanning electron microscopy were used to evaluate the microstructure of coatings from the tested samples.; The laboratory scale Amsler test did not appear to be a good indicator of the performance of the coating in full scale tests, because variations in microstructure were caused by differences in sample size, geometry and spraying methods when scaling up from a small Amsler roller to a large rail sample. The damage in tested Amsler rollers and full scale test samples included coating delamination, substrate/coating debonding, oxide and metal lamellae cracking and surface deformation. The presence of a nylon coating layer on Amsler rollers increased coating durability, however, the results were inconclusive for full scale tests.