Since T-splines cannot represent hyperbolic spline surfaces exactly, this paper presents a kind of spline surfaces, called non-uniform algebraic hyperbolic T-spline surfaces (NUAH T-splines for short) of odd bi-degree. The NUAH T-splines are defined by applying the T-spline framework to the non-uniform algebraic hyperbolic B-spline surfaces (NUAH B-spline surfaces). Based on the knot insertion of NUAH B-splines, a local refinement algorithm for NUAH T-splines of odd bi-degree is shown. This paper proves that, for any NUAH T-spline of odd bi-degree, the linear independence of its blending functions can be determined by computing the rank of the NUAH T-spline-to-NUAH B-spline transformation matrix. Finally, the examples verify the effectiveness of the local refinement algorithm of NUAH T-splines. ©, 2015, Institute of Computing Technology. All right reserved.