Nitrocyclohexane (NCH) is a model nitroalkane compound with naphthenic structural groups for studying the combustion properties of nitro-based energetic fuels, and also demonstrates significant potential applications for advanced engines. However, accurate description of the detailed kinetic mechanisms for pyrolysis and combustion of NCH receives little attentions. Herein, the detailed pyrolysis and oxidation mechanism of NCH is studied by using quantum chemistry calculations and chemical kinetic theory. The potential energy surfaces of the CN bond dissociation reaction, HONO elimination reaction, abstraction reactions of NCH as well as the subsequent β-scission reactions are calculated using G4//M06–2X/6–311++G(d, p) method, which are subsequently employed for reaction rate constant computations via transition state theory (TST) and RRKM/master-equation (RRKM/ME) method. The ab initio chemical kinetic study results are used to develop a detailed kinetic mechanism to predict the pyrolysis experimental results of NCH, which are performed using a single-pulse shock tube (SPST). The SPST experiment is performed at pressure of 10 bar, temperature ranging from 1070 to 1560 K, reaction time of around 1.77 microsecond with fuel concentrations of 0.5 % diluted by Argon gas. The developed detailed kinetic mechanism exhibits reasonable prediction results of the pyrolysis product distributions together with literature ignition delay times across a wide range of temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio conditions. Rate-of-production analysis is conducted to gain insight into the pyrolysis chemical kinetics of NCH. The present work should be valuable for the study of the combustion chemistry of nitro-alkane energetic fuels.