Abstract: The thermal deformation of the hearth rollers is one of the key factors affecting the buckling and deviation of the strip steel in the continuous annealing furnace. Reasonable control of hot roll shape change is very important for high efficiency and stability of pass plate technology in continuous annealing process. For the most important heating section and cooling section in the continuous annealing furnace, the finite element model of the hearth roller was established by ANSYS software. Based on the thermal mechanical coupling analysis of the software, the thermal deformation of the hearth roller in the heating section and cooling section under different working conditions was simulated. The change of the roll shape curve under cold and hot working conditions was compared and analyzed. The influence of the temperature distribution of the hearth roller and the axial temperature difference on the change of the roller shape were discussed. The results show that the large axial temperature difference of the hearth roller in the heating section will change the single taper roller into a flat roller, which does not play a role of preventing the strip deviation. The large axial temperature difference of the hearth roller in the cooling section will change the flat roller into a roller with a certain crown, which increases the cold buckling risk of the strip. When the axial temperature difference of the hearth roller is controlled at ≤50 ℃, the thermal deformation has less influence on the roller shape.