Generate this kind of 2d burst or pulse algorithm?
Rather than using an image, I would suggest doing this kind of effect using a shader. I'm not familiar with Cocos2d-x, but some quick googling suggests that it can work with shaders. You'd use a pixel shader that calculates the distance of each pixel to the center of the pulse effect, then applies a function based on that distance to define the shape and appearance of the pulse.

I made a quick shadertoy as a proof of concept and example.