Thermally induced errors are one of the most important issues for modern machine tools’ accuracy. Therefore, the numerical determination of the thermal machine behavior is becoming an essential part of the development process. These thermal models are highly dependent on the applied loads and boundary conditions.

The objective of a current research project is to develop a comprehensive simulation method combining finite element (FE) analysis and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) ensuring close-to-reality results. To guarantee a wide applicability of the project results and further use of the created models, the FE analysis is the most suitable tool for an efficient simulation of the thermal behavior. The most important factors for a realistic simulation are the boundary conditions. Therefore an experimental analysis of the temperature increase and the thermal deformation of a lathe and a milling machine are also performed, providing a basis for model updating.