This paper deals with the thermal shock problem of an infinitely long circular cylinder with an edge crack initially at uniform temperature being suddenly immersed into medium at lower temperatures. It is assumed that the thermal disturbance near the crack tip may be neglected in the analysis of the temperature field of the elastic solid with a crack, because thermal shock occurs rapidly. We analyze the transient thermal stress problem of the elastic solid with acrack and determine the stress intensity factor at the crack tip. The nondimensional maximum transient stress intensity factor is expressed as a function of Biot's number and the nondimensional crack length. Then, we propose simplified formulation of the nondimensional maximum transient stress intensity factor as a function of Biot's number and the nondimensional crack length.