In this paper, a new lattice Boltzmann model at representative elementary volume (REV) scale is proposed for axisymmetric thermal flows in porous media. In this model, a new equilibrium distribution function including porosity is proposed to describe the cases of variable porosity, and simple force term is adopted to achieve a better numerical stability. The numerical experiments, including five benchmark problems, demonstrate that the proposed LBM can be served as a feasible and efficient method for axisymmetric thermal flows through porous media. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.