Nitro-propane (NP) was employed as the initiator to investigate the effect of initiated cracking on heat transfer of aviation fuel RP-3 with a one-stage and cracking system operating under supercritical pressure. The pyrolysis products are analyzed using a chromatograph/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The heat sink

conversion rate and heat transfer coefficient were calculated based on the experimental results. Experimental results indicate that the heat transfer characteristics are influenced by the pyrolysis rate and physical property change caused by products distribution. NP accelerates the pyrolysis and increases the heat sink of fuel in temperature range of 800 K to 900 K. Under the same heat flux conditions

the effects of NP are reflected in the reduction of fuel and wall temperature. The reductions of fuel and wall temperature increase first and decrease along the flow direction

and the maximum decrease is more than 10 K. However

the Reynolds numbers decrease because of large amount gaseous products generated by pyrolysis reaction

which has negative effect on the convective heat transfer. So the influence of initiated cracking on the heat transfer of RP-3 is not a simple effect of promotion or inhibition

the regularity is different in different temperature ranges.