The heat release rate of single lithium-ion battery measured by the commonly used experimental method is not able to reflect the heat losses caused by the domino effect and the intermittent changes during the transfer process of a large number of lithium-ion batteries within the air transport package. This paper, instead, proposes a method of equivalent analysis for the heat release rate of lithium-ion battery based on domino effect. Namely, the domino effect and the surface temperature of each battery after the thermal runaway of typical 18650 lithium-ion battery in 3×3 configuration were analyzed with the help of independently designed experimental platform. Using FLUENT to use the standard 18650 lithium-ion battery heat release rate curve for the same experimental conditions of lithium-ion battery thermal runaway simulation. Then dichotomy was used to revise the standard heat release rate to accord the surface temperature of the lithium-ion battery in simulation and in experiment to obtain equivalent heat release rate curve of lithium-ion battery to apply to further simulation. It turned out that the maximum temperature of each battery and the time to reach maximum temperature coincided with the experimental data, verifying the reliability of the revised equivalent heat release rate model. This method can be applied to obtain heat release rate of various types of lithium-ion batteries in different amount of package, therefore guiding the fire prevention and control project in the air transport of lithium-ion battery in practice.