Anti-icing System on Railway Turnouts using Induction Heating Technology for Energy Saving

The conventional heating system on railway turnout uses heating cables which consist of bus wires. They are convenient and have a simple structure, however, their low power causes the slow response of snow-melting and long operation time. These characteristics are even more pronounced in extreme environments. In this paper, to improve this, induction heating technology, which is generally used, was applied to the anti-icing system of the railway turnout. In order to replace the conventional heater, an induction heater with a similar size to the existing one has been designed. The converter is designed for the power and frequency required for induction heaters. Based on this, multi-physics analysis and outdoor experiments with prototypes were performed. In addition, it was confirmed by comparing with the conventional system that energy saving is achieved through frequency control.