Due to the difference of temperature rise inside and outside the contact box of a high voltage switchgear

online temperature measurement devices cannot directly respond to the highest temperature of the contacts. In this paper

heat calculation models of the conductive loop in normal and poor contact states are established for certain switchgear. The temperature rise is calculated by using the electric-thermal coupling method in ANSYS

and the temperature distribution along and near the contacts is acquired. Comparison between simulation and experimental results verifies the correctness of the proposed simulation method. The proposed method is expected to be applied to sensor installation and detection data analysis of metal-enclosed high voltage switchgears for finding overheating fault timely and accurately.