Heat conduction of particles in wavy rotating drums is studied by discrete element method coupled with a thermal conduction model. The wavy walls of the rotating drums are modeled by traveling sinusoidal waves on a fixed base circle. Six wave numbers k(lambda)= 0, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 under three rotating velocities omega(d) = 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 pi rad/s are simulated. The internal heat conduction characteristics of particles are explored by the probability density functions of particle temperature, as well as the PDF-based evaluation functions. In general, compared to the circular drum, the wavy drums are found to enhance and speed up the heat conduction process of particles especially under the low rotating velocities. For very large wave numbers and rotating velocities, the heat conduction processes are slightly weakened by the up-casting process of particles caused by the wavy walls. In addition, the Shannon information entropy-based analyses confirm the conclusions derived by the PDF-based evaluations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.