This paper presents a SBFEM (scaled boundary finite element method) based approach for 2-D steady-state heat transfer analysis with cyclic symmetry. The global coefficient matrices of SBFEM are proved to be block-circulant in a cyclically symmetric system, and the global quadratic eigenproblem is partitioned into a series of smaller independent sub-eigenproblems, reducing its computational cost. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed approach. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.