The rise in hot-spot temperature has been a serious problem for power cables

and it is necessary to study the influence of contact resistance on the hot-spot temperature of cable joint. Firstly

we established a 2-D axial symmetry model of cable and cable joint. Comparing thermal field distribution of simulation results under different equivalent models of contact resistance

we found that the relative errors of the hot spot temperature did not exceed 1%

and the appropriate equivalent model was determined. Then

the thermal field of two different models

in the presence and absence of contact resistance

were simulated. The relative error of these two models was 10.2%

making it necessary to consider the contact resistance. In the end

the experiment was carried out on the temperature rise test platform of cable joint. Compared the test data with simulation results

it is shown that the relative error of hot spot temperature does not exceed 7%

and the method can meet the demands of engineering application.