A reasonable finite element (FE) model of grinding temperature field has been developed on the basis of analysis of the transient temperature field, and three kinds of boundary conditions are loaded on the element of a moving heat source. The study, which is based on the finite element principle, has been carried out using the numerical simulation software ANSYS. Many results have been obtained including three dimensional temperature distribution map. The simulated results under different conditions show good agreement with the experimental results. With the comparison of the dry-grinding and wet-grinding, the result shows that the wet-grinding temperature with a proper grinding fluid is rather lower than the dry-grinding temperature. Finally, the variable coefficient of convective heat transfer and the different form heat source have been discussed in detail.