The travelling properties of laser-generated surface acoustic wave with broad bandwidth, which propagated on a sample with surface defects, have been investigated in theory. The numerical results of theoretical models with different defects indicate that the surface defects worked as low-pass filter for the travelling surface acoustic waves. The cut-off frequency of low-pass filter is linearly related to the depth of the defect, and decreased against the increasing depth of the defect. The amplitude of the travelling surface acoustic wave is seriously attenuated with increasing width of surface defect. The numerical results provide a theoretical basis for quantitative detection of the surface defects.