IEEE PEDS 2019, Toulouse, France

9 – 12 July 2019

A Study on High-Frequency Induction Heating

System for Railway Turnout
Hyeongseok Oh1, Geochul Jeong2, Chan-Bae Park1, Ik-Hyun Jo1, Hyeokbin Kwon1, Beomsu Kim1, Pil-Wan Han3,
and Hyung-Woo Lee1
1
Korea National University of Transportation, Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do 16106 Republic of Korea
2
Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763 Republic of Korea
3
Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, Seongsan-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongsangnam-do 51543 Republic of Korea
e-mail: ohhs1996@[Link]

Abstract-This paper focuses on high-frequency induction heating medium, and when a high frequency is used, a large amount of
system for railway turnout. In the existing railway industry, most energy is concentrated on the surface due to the skin effect [3],
of the heating systems for railway turnout use the heating wire. It
attached to the rail conducts the heat generated by the resistance and the heating is possible in a short time [4],[5]. Also, losses
directly to the rail. The heating wire, which has been applied for due to skin effect [6],[7] occur as thermal energy and should
a long time, is advantageous in that it is simple in construction be considered in designing. To take advantages of IH
and easy to install. However, since it consumes a lot of power and technology, high-frequency induction heating was applied to
has low heat conduction efficiency it requires a long operation the heating system of the turnout. Fig. 2 shows a high-
time for perfect snow melting. Therefore, the propose of this study
is the IH system as a new heating system to cope with existing frequency induction heating system, which generates heat in
heating system, and to improve electrical efficiency and heat the indicated area. When the high-frequency power is applied
efficiency through the IH system. When the IH system for turnout to the high-frequency induction heating system via the circuit
operates, the generated electric energy is converted into heat control unit, a voltage is generated in a heating plate by the
energy from the heating plate (SUS430), which is a component of Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction. The voltage
the heating system. On the other hand, since the conversion from
electric to thermal energy has a great influence on the heating, causes current to flow, this current is an eddy current. The eddy
circuit analysis, electromagnetic field analysis and thermal current is the heat source of the heating plate. The heat source
analysis are required. Therefore, this paper has suggested a high- is the source of the generated thermal energy, and it prevents
frequency induction heating system with high electrical and snowing and freezing of the turnout. Therefore, this study
thermal efficiency to replace the conventional heating system. proposes a high-frequency induction heating system to replace
Index Terms-High frequency, Induction heating, Heating system, the existing heating system.
Railway turnout

I. INTRODUCTION
In winter, railway accidents are constantly occurring all over
the world, so interest in technology to prevent winter damage
is increasing. A railway switch is a device installed to a railway
turnout from one line to another line. The railway turnout is
one of the most critical pieces of equipment for redirecting the
vehicle [1]. Therefore, it should provide reliability of operation
and stability of the vehicle. However, as shown in Fig. 1, it
installed on the roadbed causes adherence failure due to the
snow or ice between switch-point rails and stock rails, which Fig. 1. A railway turnout containing switch-point rails and stock rails
leads to disturbance in the operation. These adherence failures
occur in the sections of the urban railroad, the general railroad,
and the high-speed railway. In order to prevent snowing and
icing of the turnout during the winter season, heating wires
were installed the main part of the turnout. However, the
heating wires which have purposed to melt snow and ice have
many disadvantages and is not efficient. This is because they
are old technology and require a lot of power to operate [2].
Therefore, Induction Heating (IH) technology to substitute
the heating wires is applied to the heating system to effectively
remove snow and ice in the turnout. The IH technology is a
high-efficiency technology that transfers energy without a Fig. 2. High-frequency induction heating system in railway turnout

978-1-5386-6499-5/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

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 II. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS B. Electromagnetic Design and Analysis
A. Electric Circuit Design The device of the IH system is designed based on magnetic
It is not necessary to generate excessive heat in order to equivalent circuit, and the basic design type is core type and
remove snow and ice in the turnout. For the proper temperature, coreless type as shown in Fig. 4. It was designed considering
it is necessary to adjust eddy currents generated from the the height of the stock rail and the space between switch-point
electromagnetic field. This eddy current heats the surface of rails and stock rails in railway turnouts. Based on the UIC60
the heating plate due to skin effect through the high frequency. model, the length of the flat part of the rail is 32 mm. The width
As shown in (1), the effective area of the conductor decreases which is the space of switch-point rails is about 15mm when
when the frequency is high. The effective area of the conductor the rails attaches. Therefore, the shape of the device is designed
decreases, and the resistance increases according to (2). The considering the margin of space.
resistance is an important factor in the generation of heat The thickness of the heating plate is designed to be 2 mm,
through Joule heating [8], [9]. Thus, a suitable source must be so that the heat generated from the surface can be enough to
applied to the heating system, which can be controlled through radiate around the area with snow and ice. The material of the
an electronic circuit. Fig. 3 shows the electronic circuit that heating plate is set to SUS430, which has corrosion resistance
controls the power of the IH system. The supply voltage 1Φ and magnetism. SUS430 is a kind of stainless steel, so it’s
220V 60Hz is converted to high-frequency AC through a corrosion resistance (a performance of resistance for corrosive
rectifier, a DC link, and a resonant inverter. The reactance action in a certain environment) is good. Therefore, SUS430 is
increases when the frequency f increases in relation to (3). As a suitable material to cope with corrosion due to snow and ice.
a result, the increase of the reactance leads to an increase in the In addition, having magnetism means that it has permeability,
impedance value as shown in (4). An increase in impedance at which can be expected to increase in magnetic flux linkage
the same voltage causes a decrease in the current due to (5), when the device is operating. On the other hand, the influence
which acts as a loss, so it can prevent the burning of the coil. of the coreless type on the leakage magnetic flux cannot be
If By choosing the resonance frequency(20kHz) from (6) and ignored. Therefore, a core type which is ferrite is also designed
designing the resonance circuit by configuring the to reduce leakage flux.
corresponding inductor and capacitor, it is possible to reduce Table 1 shows the design specifications of the coil of the
losses of coils caused by the high frequency. high-frequency induction heating device. The coil was
designed with the Litz wire according to the AWG standard.
The current can be reduced through control, but the coil can be
δ= 1/ (1)
burned because it is high frequency. Also, since the heat is not
generated when the current is reduced too much, the Litz wire
R=l/(A·σ) (2)
is selected to prevent the burnout while maximizing the current.
The analysis is performed using a finite element method
XL=ωL=2πfL (3) (FEM)-based commercial tool on the electromagnetic field
[10]. In order to operate the high-frequency IH system for
Z=R+jXL (4)
turnout, precise electromagnetic field analysis is required. It is
V=IZ (5) necessary to accurately calculate the eddy current generated in
the heating plate which is made of SUS430 from the
f=1/(2π√ ) (6) electromagnetic analysis so that the eddy current loss acting as
the heat source of the heating plate can be accurately derived.

Fig. 3. Electric Circuit diagram for control

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 Therefore, the electromagnetic analysis is performed Core type Corless type
180
through the model shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 5 shows the eddy
current density of the heating plate. Fig. 6 shows the current

Surface Current density [kA/m]

150
density curve according to the voltage. The current density is
also linearly proportional to the voltage rise. 120

90
TABLE I
DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS FOR HIGH-FREQUENCY INDUCTION HEATING COIL 60
Item Value Unit
30
Outer Diameter of wire 2.07 mm
Diameter of a thinner wire 0.18 mm 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Number of thinner wires 100 - Voltage [V]
Length of the coil 1972. mm Fig. 6. Current density as a function of voltage
Resistance 0.013 Ω
C. Thermal Analysis
Thermal analysis is performed based on the electromagnetic
analysis. The reason for the current density in the whole
analysis is that heat is generated by the current. Thus, the
current density is a vital parameter as it is a heat source. Table
1 shows the physical properties required for thermal analysis
of SUS430. The initial temperature and the outside
temperature were selected to be –40℃ and the boundary
condition was the convective boundary condition. Fig. 7
shows the temperature distribution of the heating plate. The
core type was heated to 18.3℃ and the coreless type to 57.7℃
at a voltage of 20V. Fig. 8 shows the maximum temperature of
the heating plate depending on the voltage. It is confirmed that
heat can be generated at a voltage of about 20 V because heat
is generated at about 100℃ at a temperature above 30 V.
TABLE Ⅱ
MATERIAL PROPERTY OF SUS430

Material property Value Unit

Fig. 4. Model for analysis
(top: core type, middle: coreless type, bottom: 3D model) Relative permeability 409 -
Resistivity 600 n·Ω·m
Conductivity 1666666.7 S/m
Density 7750 kg/m3
Specific heat 109.87 cal/kg/℃
Thermal conductivity 261 W/m/℃

Fig. 5. Surface current density distribution (up: core type, down: coreless type) Fig. 7. Temperature distribution of heating plates (up: core, down: coreless)

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 Core type Coreless type [5] M. Kamli S. Yamamoto M. Abe "A 50–150 kHz Half-Bridge Inverter
3500 for induction heating Application" IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron vol. 43 pp.
163-172 Feb. 1996.
[6] Akiba Yutaka and Hirota Kazuo. Litz wire for degreasing skin high
frequency, United States Patent, No. US4549042A, 1985
2500
Temperature [ ]

[7] [Link], Formulas for the Skin Effect, Proceedings of the IRE, Vol.
30, No. 9, pp.412- 424, Sept. 1942
[8] Lucía O., Burdío J.M., Millán I., Acero J., Puyal D., Load-adaptive
1500 control algorithm of half-bridge series resonant inverter for domestic
induction heating, IEEE Trans. Power Electronics, Vol. 56, No. 8, pp.
3106-3116, Aug. 2009
500 [9] Trentin A., Zanchetta P., Clare J., Wheeler P., Automated optimal design
of input filters for direct ac/ac matrix converters, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., Vol 59, No. 7, pp. 2811-2823, Jul. 2012
-500 [10] A. Boadi, Y. Tsuchida, T. Todaka, M. Enokizono “Designing of suitable
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 construction of high-frequency induction heating coil by using finite-
Voltage [V] element method” IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 41, No. 10,
Fig. 8. Current density as a function of voltage October 2005.

III. CONCLUSION
This paper focuses on high frequency induction heating (IH)
system for railway turnout. In this study, induction heating is
proposed as a new technique to overcome the disadvantages of
conventional heating system and it is combined with rail
heating system. The electronic circuit for controlling the high-
frequency IH system is designed and the loss of the control was
prevented by the design of the resonance circuit. In addition,
the core or coreless type IH-based device is designed, and the
distribution of the eddy current acting as a heat source was
confirmed by carrying out electromagnetic analysis through
the models. The thermal analysis was carried out according to
the voltage reflecting the thermal analysis conditions
considering the winter season and the appropriate voltage for
snow melting was confirmed. In conclusion, we proposed a
high-frequency IH system to replace existing turnout heating
system. We performed circuit analysis, electromagnetic
analysis, and thermal analysis for system verification.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by a grant(19RTRP-B146024-
02) from Railroad Technology Research Program (RTRP)
funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of
Korean government.

REFERENCES
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Turnout Systems” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 58,
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[3] Hyoung-Gyun Woo and Dae-Chul Shin, “A study on the Distance and
Frequency Variable Characteristics of Flat Plate Induction Heating
Element” Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical
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[4] R. Phadungthin, J. Haema “Application study on induction heating using
half bridge LLC resonant inverter” 2017 12th IEEE Conference on
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