Explosion hardened high manganese austenitic cast steel is being tried for rail crossing recently. From the previous studies, it became clear that high tensile residual stress was generated in the hardened surface layer by explosion and microcracks were observed. In this study, therefore, the behavior of surface residual stress in explosion hardened steel due to repeated impact loads was examined and compared with those of the original and shot peened steels. The results obtained are summarized

more »

... as follows: (1) In the initial stage of the repetition of impact, high tensile surface residual stress in explosion hardened steel decreased rapidly with the repetition of impact, while those of the original and shot peened steels increased rapidly. This difference was attributed to the difference in depth of the work hardened layer in three testing materials. (2) Beyond 20 impacts the residual stress of three test specimens decreased gradually, and at more than 2000 impacts the compressive stress of about 500MPa was produced regardless of the histories of working of testing materials. (3) The linear law in the second stage of residual stress fading was applicable to this case, and the range of the linear relationship was related to the depth of the work hardened layer of testing material. (4) From the changes in half-value breadth and peak intensity of diffraction X-ray, it was supposed that a peculiar microscopic strain exists in explosion hardened steel.