A numerical analysis of the thermal stress generated during cooling of hot rolled strip on runout table of ASP1700 was performed by means of finite element program ABAQUS.For studying trend of flatness change during cooling of strip.The results demonstrated that temperature drop at strip edges leads to a residual stress distribution pattern with tensile at strip center and compressive stress at edges.Thus a trend of edge wave formation is observed as proved by the practice of skin pass rolling.A compensation control strategy, named slight center wave rolling, was proposed based on the FE analysis work to compensate the edge wave during the cooling, and adopted on ASP1700. The validity of this control strategy was confirmed by the practice.