Viscoelastic materials such as rubbers find ubiquitous use in engineering applications due to their outstanding ability to dampen vibrations and shocks. During a load cycle, the stress-strain curve of a viscoelastic material exhibits energy loss due to hysteresis. The structural response is damped because mechanical energy is dissipated and converted into heat, known as self-heating. The heating of the viscoelastic material results in degraded mechanical properties, and eventually, failure. This study focuses on the application of the viscoelastic material polyurethane in roller coaster wheels. Roller coaster wheels typically consist of a cast aluminium rim with a co-bonded polyurethane rubber bandage. The high forces and high speeds of a roller coaster ride lead to high self-heating in the rubber bandage. The high resulting temperatures in the bandage may cause failure of the bond line and of the rubber bandage itself. Replacement of the rubber bandage (re-treading) is a time-consuming and expensive process and ideally avoided. It is known that the design parameters of the wheel (diameter, width, bandage thickness, rubber hardness, etc.) influence the temperatures in the rubber bandage. At the same time, these design parameters have an influence on the damping capacity of the wheel, which is important for passenger comfort, noise and the longevity of the other mechanical components of the roller coaster vehicle. For example, the wheel with the maximum thermal performance (i.e., minimum temperature) will have minimum damping capacity, and vice-versa. To avoid this complication, this study compares the thermal performance of wheels with similar damping capacities. To evaluate the thermal performance of a wheel, a decoupled thermo-structural finite element analysis methodology is implemented. The method is validated using experimental measurements provided by the polyurethane manufacturer. Subsequently, a novel wheel design is proposed and compared to a regular roller coaster wheel. The 𝛽-ratio was introduced as the ratio of thermal to mechanical power. By comparing the finite element results with the experimental results, it was found that 𝛽 = 0.24 ensures that the numerical temperature matches the experimental temperature 𝑇num = 𝑇exp = 319.4 K. This value for the 𝛽-ratio was subsequently applied to finite element analyses of a regular roller coaster wheel and the novel wheel design. The standard wheel reached a temperature of 351.3 K on the surface and 376.7 K internally. The novel wheel design reached a maximum temperature of only 314.2 K. The maximum temperature of the novel wheel design is much lower than that of the standard wheel, because its structural finite element model is much stiffer, therefore providing less damping. Given the same loading cycle, the maximum temperature of the novel wheel design was found to be significantly lower than that of the standard roller coaster wheel. This indicates that the novel wheel will be more durable and have a longer lifetime. However, the novel wheel was also found to be significantly stiffer than the standard wheel. Toward the end of the report, various design iterations of the novel wheel design are considered which decrease this stiffness and improve damping.