Dissipative heating in turbulent flow can be expressed in terms of a dimensionless friction coefficient Cf, which is itself determined by wall roughness and local Reynolds number and is sensitive to viscosity changes. For a short-bearing flow with a sinusoidal film thickness perturbation, viscous heating is related to film thickness in a simple way. Perturbations in temperature and viscosity are included in the analysis, which predicts the partitioning of the heat-perturbation to the wavy and smooth surfaces. Convection is discussed and shown to be less influential than in laminar flow.Presented as a Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers paper at the STLE/ASME Tribology Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, October 24–27, 1993