Presented in the paper are the results of an investigation of 2D heat conduction effects on the transient heat transfer of a rotating disk heated up to a non-uniform initial temperature and suddenly-subjected to unsteady cooling by still air. A self-similar solution of the transient laminar convective heat transfer confirmed that the heat transfer coefficient rapidly becomes time-independent and equal to its value at steady-state conditions. An analytical solution of the unsteady two-dimensional heat conduction inside a disk made of Plexiglas((R)) confirmed that the known infinite-slab approach can still be used as a transient technique for determining heat transfer coefficients. Use of the regular heat transfer regime theory for the same purpose can be recommended only for the cases with the moderate initial temperature non-uniformity. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.