# Study of Heat Distribution in Railway Switch Using Resistive Heater in Cold Climate Conditions
## 1 Introduction
The results showed that a huge amount of thermal energy was absorbed by the rail due to its high heat capacity, and a considerable amount of heat was radiated into the air. He claimed that the induction plate reached the final temperature in only 4 min, and then the melting started, while for resistive heating, this process took two hours. Also, it was mentioned that the ice area (workplace) received more heat energy from induction heating rather than resistive heating [10]. In another comparison study between resistive heating and induction heating, researchers conducted experiments in a climate chamber on a railway switch at different environmental temperatures and various distances between stock and switch rails. Results showed higher energy efficiency of induction heating than resistive heating, as in the induction system, the heat transferred directly from the heating plate to the purpose area. Moreover, induction heating also improved the lubrication circumstances of moving turnout components [11]. Contactless heaters have also been suggested for railways since the stock rail loses a lot of energy due to its high heat absorption capacity. [PERSON] [12] performed a study on contactless heater performance in 2018 using experiments and numerical simulations. He compared the energy efficiency and heat distribution in the railway turnout. Results showed that for a constant time of heating, the temperature of the contactless system area was higher than the classic one; also in this situation, the snow area received more heat  
Figure 1: Railway switch operation in icing conditions and location of heater [2]. from the contactless area rather than the classic one [12]. In 2020, [PERSON] continued his work and explained that it is necessary to optimize the current heating system. He examined two modifications to the conventional heating system. The study showed that the existing heating method's performance is suboptimal and that the contactless approach is more effective. However, he recommended that the heater element's ideal shape needs to be optimized [13]. In 2019, researchers from Korea conducted a study on using high-frequency induction to heat railroad switches. They designed and analyzed an electronic circuit to control the high-frequency induction heating system. Also, the eddy current functioning as a heat source was observed using electromagnetic analysis [14]. The results of this study showed that the temperature of the induction heater can increase in a shorter time than that of the resistive method. According to the literature and interviews with industry experts, it seems that the resistive heating method is a costly operation due to high electricity consumption. Some work has been done to introduce new methods of heating or improve the performance of the current method, but still, these suggestions are in the lab testing of the prototype phase. Also, as conductive electrical heaters are operated on a large scale, replacement of this method is difficult due to the high infrastructure cost involved. The study in this paper aims to provide a scientific basis for optimizing the resistive heating operations for ice mitigation along railway switches. Both experimental and numerical methods are used. Investigation of the heat distribution in railway switches is expected to identify an optimal approach to reducing the operation cost of conductive electrical heaters.