Engineering Science and Materials Commons^™

Rail Squats: Understand Its Causes, Severity, And Non-Destructive Evaluation Techniques, Sakdirat Kaewunruen, Makoto Ishida

Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Generally, rail squats are defined by the growth of any cracks that have grown longitudinally through the rail subsurface and some of the cracks propagating to the bottom of rails transversely have branched from initial longitudinal cracks with a depression of rail surface. The rail defects are commonly referred to as ‘squats’ when they were initiated from damage caused by rolling contact fatigue, and as ‘studs’ when they were associated with white etching layer caused by the transform from pearlitic steel due to friction heat generated by wheel sliding or excessive traction. Such rail surface defect induces wheel/rail impact and …