Abstract: Thermal characteristics analysis is one of the main research methods to thermal error of the machine tools, and the convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) has a great influence on thermal analysis. But the calculation of the CHTC is a difficult problem for thermal analysis. Combined with experimental data and multiple linear regression analysis, a parametric calculation method for the CHTC of machine tool structure considering the change of ambient temperature and temperature difference is proposed on the basis of dimensional analysis. It could improve the accuracy and efficiency of the CHTC and thermal analysis. Taking the ball screw feed system of a machine tool as an example, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation and experiment.