TY - JOUR A1 - Thomas, Hans-Martin A1 - Dey, Anika A1 - Heyder, R. T1 - Eddy current test method for early detection of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) in rails JF - Insight N2 - The findings indicate that rolling contact fatigue with consecutive head checks develops preferentially in rail sections that have experienced operational work-hardening. Such hardening can be identified by instruments measuring the increased hardness values with respect to the base material. Eddy current testing was initially introduced with the aim to detect head checks and determine their damage depth. Because the material texture influences eddy current flow in the test objects very strongly, variations in hardness can easily be visualised using this method. Thus, in principle, it is possible to predict places where head checks will emerge later. This knowledge may be very helpful in improving our understanding of head check emergence under real conditions. This knowledge may also help in developing new and effective precautionary maintenance strategies. KW - Rails KW - Rolling contact fatigue KW - Head checks KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Eddy current technique PY - 2010 DO - https://doi.org/10.1784/insi.2010.52.7.361 SN - 0007-1137 VL - 52 IS - 7 SP - 361 EP - 365 PB - British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing CY - Northampton AN - OPUS4-21934 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -