This paper presents a numerical simulation of wave-type heat transfer phenomena propagating in an aluminum thin foil irradiated by a pulsed laser using the cubic interpolated propagation method coupled with a thermo-convective model. We did not use the two-step model and dual-phase lag model, which are generally known as the non-Fourier heat conduction law, but wave-type heat transfer phenomena could be observed by our method. The main characteristic of the method is to solve the governing equation including the equation of continuity, the equation of motion, the equation of energy and the equation of state. It is found that when the pulse duration is under the order of picosecond, the pure heat conduction is hardly observed and heat transfer toward the inside of materials occurs only by a thermal shock wave. The heat conduction mode after pulse laser irradiation is strongly dependent upon the value of total incident laser energy density E-in and the threshold value for pure heat conduction is 5.0 x 10(4) J/m(2) for an aluminum. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.