Abstract: The pyrolysis of phenolic resin was studied in a single-pulse shock tube at high temperatures between 1100 and 1800K. Considering the very high temperature and short duration time as the special condition met in a shock tube, the heat transfer process of sample particles in high temperature gas was analyzed and the conditions how can it reaches the temperature equilibrium between the phenolic resin powder and the ambient high temperature gas was discussed. The pyrolysis product distribution and the pyrolysis rate constants of phenolic resin were determined by using gas chromatograph and mass spectrometry. The major gas products were identified as water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, acetylene and benzene. The pyrolysis process was divided into the lower and higher temperature regions at 1400K. The different dependency relationships of the pyrolysis rate constant with temperature for the lower and higher temperature regions were obtained.Key words: phenolic resin, pyrolysis, re-entry process, shock tube, mass spectrometry analysis, chromatography analysis