A finite element procedure for hyper-elastic materials such as rubber has been developed to estimate the temperature rise during cyclic loading. The irreversible mechanical work developed in rubber has been used to determine the heat generation rate for carrying out thermal analysis. The evaluation of the heat energy is dependent on the strains. The finite element analysis assumes Green-Lagrangian strain displacement relations, Mooney-Rivlin strain energy density function for constitutive relationship, incremental equilibrium equations, and Total Lagrangian approach and the stress and strain of the rubber-like materials are evaluated using a degenerated shell element with assumed strain field technique, considering both material and geometric non-linearities. A transient heat conduction analysis has been carried out to estimate the temperature rise for different time steps in rubber-like materials using Galerkin's formulations. A numerical example is presented and the computed temperature values for various load steps agree closely with the experimental results reported in the literature. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.