Abstract: The research of the failure mechanism of load-carrying construction under high-power laser irradiation can expand the field of laser application.In order to investigate the influence of beam intensity distribution on the thermal-mechanical behavior of cylindrical shells under laser irradiation, firstly the thermal-mechanical model of the cylindrical shell was constructed by means of finite element method. Taking total laser power equal, several typical distributions were analyzed and compared. Then thermal-mechanical response of the internal pressured cylindrical shell under different laser irradiation was studied. Numerical results indicate that intensity distribution has a significant effect on temperature, stress and displacement fields of cylindrical shell. The cylindrical shells irradiated by laser beams with different intensity have different failure mode and failure time.