Abstract: Studied with the FE method is the rule of temperature variation of the steel pipe along the wall thickness direction during the external spray cooling process.The result shows that thanks to the optimized cooling control tactics and the cooling strength as well，steel pipes with W.T.under 20 mm can be overall cooled so as to meet relevant process requirement；and that for such pipes as cooled via continuous cooling process，when surface heat transfer coefficient is 2 000 W/（m²·℃），the maximum temperature difference between the outside/inside surfaces and the wall center is less than 250℃，while in case that the heat transfer coefficient is 3 000 W/（m²·℃），compared with the continuous cooling process，using the water/air alternative circulating cooling process，the said temperature difference can be further reduced.