Energy Conservation in Snow-Melting System on Railway Tracks Using Feed Forward Control

The Joetsu Shinkansen line (super express railway), which runs through a heavy snowfall district, is installed with snow-melting systems whose function is to melt snow deposit on the track by sprinkling heated water over a total distance of 74km. Because of its long water path in these systems, delivery and return of the water takes a very long time, resulting in a time lag of the feedback control. In order to lessen this time lag, a control system using a feed forward algorithm has been developed and a system operation test has been carried out. It is found to be very promising as a snow-melting device from a view point of energy saving.