In this paper, the transient and steady-state temperature field of a traveling-wave rotary ultrasonic motor is analyzed by the finite element method, based on a theoretical model of power loss of this motor in rated operation. Using this model, the temperature field of this motor is calculated and the effects of the heat conductivity of friction material, motor size, ambient temperature, and pressure on the temperature field are estimated. The calculated temperature distribution and transient temperature change agree with the experimental results. The variation of heat conductivity of the friction material has little effect on the minimum temperature in the motor but this variation seriously affects the maximum temperature in the motor when the heat conductivity of the friction material is lower than 0.5 W/(m°C). Two indices are defined to express the non-uniformity of temperature field and how quickly the temperature field reaches its steady state for traveling-wave ultrasonic motors of different sizes. It is found that traveling-wave ultrasonic motors with different sizes have different nonuniformity of temperature field and take different amounts of time to reach thermal steady state. The maximum temperature rise is lower when the ambient temperature is higher; the maximum temperature increases as the vacuum degree increases and it is not affected by the vacuum degree when the vacuum degree is too high (<;10 -3 Pa).