Study of Heat Distribution in Railway Switch Using Resistive Heater in Cold Climate Conditions

The railway is an essential source of logistics and transportation in cold regions, but low temperatures and icing can be challenging for uninterrupted railway operations in these regions. Icing on railway switches is a safety hazard, and presently, one of the industry’s adaptive approaches for ice mitigation is the use of resistive heaters. This method is efficient but consumes a great amount of electricity, leading to high financial costs in terms of the operation and maintenance of railway tracks in ice-prone regions. In this paper, a study is carried out using experiments and computational simulations to analyze the heat distribution in a cross-section of a rail at below-freezing temperatures. Experiments are performed in a cold room using an actual rail switch, thermocouples, and infrared imaging, while numerical analyses are carried out using a MATLAB-based analytical model to simulate the heat transfer, considering a section of stock rail and a heating element. Results show a considerable loss of heat from the heater to the surroundings of the rail, especially towards the ground ballast. Numerical simulation results provide a good insight into heat transfer along railway sections, and results are validated with experiments, where a good agreement is found. This study provides a good base for further optimization of resistive heating operations for ice mitigation along railway switches.