Abstract It has been shown by the methods of physical material science that long-term operation of rails is accompanied by the formation of the gradient structural constituents consisting in the regular change in relative content of lamellar pearlite, fractured pearlite and structure of ferrite-carbide mixture in cross-selection of rail head. As the distance to the surface of rails increases the relative content of metal volume with the structure of lamellar pearlite decreases and that with the structure of fractured pearlite and ferrite-carbide mixture increases. It has been established that the characteristic feature of ferrite-carbide mixture structure is a nanodimentional range of grains, subgrains and particles of the carbide phase forming it. The dimension of grains and subgrains forming the given type of structure varies within the limits of 40-70 nm. The size of carbide phase particles located along the boundaries of grains and subgrains varies within the limits of 8-20 nm.

Abstract The analysis of structure, defect substructure, elemental and phase compounds and friction properties of Al-11wt%Si alloy surface layer of subjected to complex treatment was carried out by methods of scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Complex treatment includes the electroexplosion influence by Al-Y2O3 compound and subsequent electron beam irradiation. The surface layer ≈ 80 μm thick is formed by high-velocity crystallization cells of 0.8-1.3 μm in dimension. Interlayers 50–75 nm thick located along the cells of high-velocity crystallization are enriched by atoms of silicon and yttrium. Complex surface treatment leads to the increase by 18 times in wear resistance and decrease by 1.6 times in the friction factor of the modified layer.