Deep rolling is a powerful tool to increase the service life or reduce the weight of railway axles. Three fatigue-resistant increasing effects are achieved in one treatment: lower surface roughness, strain hardening and compressive residual stresses near the surface. In this work, all measurable changes introduced by the deep rolling process are investigated. A partly deep-rolled railway axle made of high strength steel material 34CrNiMo6 is investigated experimentally. Microstructure analyses, hardness-, roughness-, FWHM- and residual stress measurements are performed. By the microstructure analyses a very local grain distortion, in the range < 5 µm, is proven in the deep rolled section. Stable hardness values, but increased strain hardening is detected by means of FWHM and the surface roughness is significantly reduced by the process application. Residual stresses were measured using the XRD and HD methods. Similar surface values are proven, but the determined depth profiles deviate. Residual stress measurements have generally limitations when measuring in depth, but especially their distribution is significant for increasing the durability of steel materials. Therefore, a numerical deep rolling simulation model is additionally built. Based on uniaxial tensile and cyclic test results, examined on specimen machined from the edge layer of the railway axle, an elastic–plastic Chaboche material model is parameterised. The material model is added to the simulation model and so the introduced residual stresses can be simulated. The comparison of the simulated residual stress in-depth profile, considering the electrochemical removal, shows good agreement to the measurement results. The so validated simulation model is able to determine the prevailing residual stress state near the surface after deep rolling the railway axle. Maximum compressive residual stresses up to about -1,000 MPa near the surface are achieved. The change from the induced compressive to the compensating tensile residual stress range occurs at a depth of 3.5 mm and maximum tensile residual stresses of + 100 MPa at a depth of 4 mm are introduced. In summary, the presented experimental and numerical results demonstrate the modifications induced by the deep rolling process application on a railway axle and lay the foundation for a further optimisation of the deep rolling process.

深滚压是延长铁路车轴使用寿命或减轻其重量的有力工具。一种处理可实现三种抗疲劳增强效果：降低表面粗糙度、应变硬化和表面附近的残余压应力。在这项工作中，研究了深轧过程引入的所有可测量的变化。对采用高强钢34CrNiMo6材料的部分深轧铁路车轴进行了试验研究。进行微观结构分析、硬度、粗糙度、半高宽和残余应力测量。通过微观结构分析，证明深轧部分存在非常局部的晶粒畸变（范围 < 5 µm）。稳定的硬度值，但通过半高宽 (FWHM) 可以检测到应变硬化的增加，并且通过工艺应用显着降低了表面粗糙度。使用 XRD 和 HD 方法测量残余应力。证明了相似的表面值，但确定的深度剖面有所偏差。残余应力测量在深度测量时通常具有局限性，但其分布对于提高钢材的耐用性尤其重要。因此，额外建立了深轧数值模拟模型。根据单轴拉伸和循环试验结果，对铁路车轴边缘层加工的样本进行检查，对弹塑性 Chaboche 材料模型进行参数化。将材料模型添加到仿真模型中，因此可以模拟引入的残余应力。考虑到电化学去除，模拟残余应力深度剖面的比较显示出与测量结果良好的一致性。经过如此验证的模拟模型能够确定铁路车轴深滚压后表面附近的主要残余应力状态。表面附近的最大残余压缩应力可达约-1,000 MPa。从诱导压缩残余应力范围到补偿拉伸残余应力范围的变化发生在 3.5 mm 的深度处，并且在 4 mm 的深度处引入了 + 100 MPa 的最大残余拉伸应力。总之，所提出的实验和数值结果证明了深滚压工艺在铁路车轴上的应用所引起的修改，并为进一步优化深滚压工艺奠定了基础。