The effects of surface roughness are not considered in the traditional motor model which fails to reflect the actual contact mechanism between the stator and slider. An analytical model for calculating the tangential force of linear ultrasonic motor is proposed in this article. The presented model differs from the previous spring contact model, the asperities in contact between stator and slider are considered. The influences of preload and exciting voltage on tangential force in moving direction are analyzed. An experiment is performed to verify the feasibility of this proposed model by comparing the simulation results with the measured data. Moreover, the proposed model and spring model are compared. The results reveal that the proposed model is more accurate than spring model. The discussion is helpful for designing and modeling of linear ultrasonic motors.