Abstract: Contact pairs of mechanical transmission parts are usually subjected to coupled effects of both mechanical and frictional heating loads, which makes it extremely complicated to analyse mechanical behaviours of contact interface. A thermoelastic contact model considering heat convection of heterogeneous materials was established via equivalent inclusion method (EIM) and utilized to investigate influences of frictional coefficients, inclusion locations and material properties on temperature and thermal stress distributions on the surface or subsurface of material. In addition, thermal effects of friction on contact pairs material with embedded disperse spherical inclusions were analysed. The results show that surface temperature rise of contact pairs was influnced by coefficient of heat convection. Subsurface temperature rise and thermal stress of contact pairs increased as an augment of the friction coefficient. Temperature and thermal stress distributions in contact pairs material involving disperse inclusions were complicated in compared with a single inclusion case.