Analysis of the Deceleration Methods of Fatigue Crack Growth Rates under Mode I Loading Type in Pearlitic Rail Steel

The paper presents a comparison of the results of the fatigue crack growth rate for raw rail steel, steel reinforced with composite material—CFRP—and also in the case of counteracting crack growth using the stop-hole technique, as well as with an application of an “anti-crack growth fluid”. All specimens were tested using constant load amplitude methods with a maximum loading of Fmax = 8 kN and stress ratio R = smin/smax = 0.1 in order to analyze the efficiency of different strategies of fatigue crack growth rate deceleration. It has been shown that the fatigue crack grows fastest in the case of the raw material and slowest in the case of “anti-crack growth fluid” application. Additionally, the study on fatigue fracture surfaces using light and scanning electron (SEM) microscopy to analyze the crack growth mechanism was carried out. As a result of fluid activity, the fatigue crack closure occurred and significantly decreased crack driving force and finally resulted in fatigue crack growth decrease.