An analytical model of acoustic field excited by a pulsed-laser line source on a coated cylinder is presented.Surface wave dispersive behaviours for a cylinder with a slow coating are analysed and compared with that of a bare cylinder.Based on this analysis, the laser-generated transient response of the perturbed Rayleigh wave and the higher modes of steel cylinder with a zinc coating are calculated from the model using residue theory and FFT technique.The theoretical result from the superposed waveform of the perturbed Rayleigh wave and higher modes agree well with the waveform obtained in experiment.The results show that the model and numerical method provide a useful technique for quantitatively characterizing coating parameters of coated cylinder by the laser generated surface waves.