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Rails are one of the most important and, at the same time, most stressed elements of the railroad transport and metropolitan, since they are particularly exposed to the loading caused by the rolling stock as well as the dynamic loading. Due to the increased speed of the trains for the last years, and the increment loading of the freight cars, the development of service, fatigue-type defects in the place of contact of the train wheel with the rail head surface may occur. These are so-called “Rolling contact fatigue” (RCF) defects.
The control of corrosion and erosion damages is one of the essential engineering tasks solving of which ensures the long performance of the objects and constructions. Moreover, despite all the measures taken to increase the corrosion resistance of materials, control and monitoring of appearance and development of corrosion and erosion damages remains one of the most important elements of the Risk Based Engineering. These tasks are relevant for almost all major industries: nuclear, thermal and hydropower, chemical and petrochemical industries, oil and gas, piping, naval, railway and automotive transport, and others.
Significant dynamic loads on aircraft wheel rims during takeoff and landing have compelled aircraft wheel manufacturers to introduce mandatory non-destructive testing of aircraft wheels for maintenance and repair companies.
Welds are the most common type of permanent joints in all industrial sectors. There are many types of welds both in terms of welding methods (manual electric arc, automatic or semi-automatic, submerged arc, gas-shielded arc, electrical resistance welding, etc.), and in terms of joint configurations (butt, fillet, tee, lap welds). However, in most cases, irrespective of the welding method, welded joints are subject to quality testing at the end of welding. Flaw inspection is aimed at identifying various defects that lead to a weakened weld strength or poor leak tightness. Timely detection of such flaws significantly affects the determination of service life of a whole welded structure. The weld quality is particularly critical for high pressure vessels and systems, as well as for load-bearing structures.
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