Abstract: The propagation of surface wave which induced by the laser ultrasonic shock processing was simulated in half-space elastic materials by ABAQUS software. First， the effect of laser shock processing was equivalent to a modulated Gaussian pulse. To eliminate the undesirable reflections from boundary edges， the infinite elements were placed along the appropriate edges of the model. The received waves agree with the Rayleigh surface waves. Secondly， the effective elastic modulus method was introduced to simulate the initial residual stress in the surface region. Detection of surface velocity based on ultrasonic time-difference method was introduced. The numerical value and theory well fit experimental datas， which provid a way of using laser ultrasonic to measure of the residual stress.

Key words: laser ultrasonic, surface wave velocity, finite element, equivalent modulus, residual stress