Abstract: The thermal-mechanical response of the internally pressured cylindrical shell under laser irradiation is simulated by finite element method. Under different working conditions, the temperature and stress distributions of the cylindrical shell are gained, and the failure time of the shell is determined according to the theory of material strength. A numerical method is put forward to predicting the failure energy threshold of the cylindrical shell under laser irradiation. The influences of shell thickness and internal pressure on the failure energy threshold are investigated, and the relationship between the failure energy threshold of the cylindrical shell and the two parameters are given. It is found that failure energy threshold has an approximately linear relation with shell thickness a