This paper reports a theoretical study of the transient thermal stress distributions of a layered slab which is composed of two different materials. The layered slab is heated by a moving line heat source on its upper surface and cooled convectively on the lower surface. In order to solve the initial and boundary value problem, a general hybrid Laplace transform/finite element method is utilized. Finally, a numerical procedure, the Fourier series technique, is used to obtain the inversion of the Laplace transform. The effect of the number of mesh elements in theX‐direction is also investigated to verify the accuracy and convergence of the finite element method. In addition, a typical result is compared with the analytic solution. The numerical results of the transient temperature and thermal stress distribution of the layered slab are presented to demonstrate the effect of the physical properties.