Abstract: The transient temperature fields generated by a pulsed laser in cylindrical shell were obtained by using the finite element method (FEM).The temperature dependences of material properties were taken into account during the numerical simulation.The temperature distributions of aluminum pipe were obtained in radial orientation and angular orientation at various time.The pulsed laser induced transient temperature fields were obtained in aluminum pipe,which would be useful in the research on thermo-elastic excitation of laser ultrasonic waves in cylindrical shell.