Abstract: As the core component of a vacuum sintering furnace, the geometric cross-section shape of heating elements directly affects the furnace temperature distribution, while temperature uniformity is a crucial index for evaluating the furnace's performance. This paper investigates the influence of twelve types of heating elements, including circular ring, circular, diamond, square, semicircular, rectangular, and different combinations of these shapes, on the temperature distribution using the finite element method. Combined with the geometric relationship between the heating body and the micro-element surface of the workpieces, a heat transfer model is established to study the radiation characteristics of the elements with different cross-section shapes. The results show that, under no-load conditions, the size of the temperature uniformity zone is the largest in the furnace with rectangular/circular combined cross-section elements, whereas the furnace with rectangular-section ones exhibits the smallest, with a difference of 16%. Compared with the circular combined-shaped furnace, the maximum temperature difference of the workpieces in the diamond-shaped one is reduced by 30.18℃, while the furnace temperature uniformity is increased by 23%. Our work may provide a theoretical basis and technical reference for optimizing the heater design of a vacuum sintering furnace.