%0 Journal Article %T Tribological behaviour of microalloyed and conventional C¨CMn rail steels in a pure sliding condition %A A Garc¨ªa %A A Hern¨¢ndez Battez %A JL Viesca %A R Gonz¨¢lez %A S Gonz¨¢lez-Cach¨®n %J Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit %@ 2041-3017 %D 2018 %R 10.1177/0954409718765063 %X This paper compares the tribological behaviour of microalloyed rail steel with conventional C¨CMn rail steel under different test conditions (load, temperature and humidity). Pin-on-disc tribological tests were performed inside a climate chamber under different loads (20, 30 and 40£¿N), relative humidity (15, 55 and 70%) and temperatures (20 and 40£¿¡æ). After the friction and wear tests, the worn surfaces were analysed using both confocal and scanning electron microscopies. The results obtained show that the use of microalloyed steel in railway applications under severe conditions (high loads and humidity) could lead to increased service life of the rails and could extend the time between maintenance operations %K Wear %K pin on disc %K microalloyed steel %K rail steels %K fine pearlitic microstructure %U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0954409718765063