Deformation distribution within the specimen beneath the thermomechanical analysis (TMA) probe, found by using the finite element method (FEM), depends mainly on penetration depth, specimen thickness and diameter as well as on radius of the probe tip when the Poisson's ratio influences it just slightly. For standard radius of the tip R-0 = 1 mm, most deformation is distributed in a material layer up to 0.5 mm thick independently on elastic modulus of a polymer at a glassy state. It is caused by the fact that maximal penetration depth for the polymers usually equals to about 0.05 mm. Because of this, the contact Surface area is less than 0.17 mm(2) for the standard radius of the tip. This evidences that predominantly the specimen volume equal to 0.5 mm x 0.17 mm(2) (depth x area) is tested by the TMA at compression mode. For R-0 = 5 mm is tested the layer 2.5 min thick. This makes possible to evaluate the material properties in the zone of different thickness depending on radius of the tip. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.