Measurements of Young's and shear moduli of rail steel at elevated temperatures

The design and modelling of the buckling effect of Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) requires accurate material constants, especially at elevated temperatures. However, such material constants have rarely been found in literature. In this article, the Young's moduli and shear moduli of rail steel at elevated temperatures are determined by a new sonic resonance method developed in our group. A network analyser is used to excite a sample hanged inside a furnace through a simple tweeter type speaker. The vibration signal is picked up by a Polytec OFV-5000 Laser Vibrometer and then transferred back to the network analyser. Resonance frequencies in both the flexural and torsional modes are measured, and the Young's moduli and shear moduli are determined through the measured resonant frequencies. To validate the measured elastic constants, the measurements have been repeated by using the classic sonic resonance method. The comparisons of obtained moduli from the two methods show an excellent consistency of the results. In addition, the material elastic constants measured are validated by an ultrasound test based on a pulse-echo method and compared with previous published results at room temperature. The measured material data provides an invaluable reference for the design of CWR to avoid detrimental buckling failure.