In order to study the regulation of burning rate and combustion characteristics in high burning rate work device, and ensure the thrust output stability of the device, a burning rate test by optical fiber was introduced and the ignition-combustion rate of pyrotechnic short-pulse propelling work device was tested. Results show that the combustion process has a non-parallel layer burning characteristic, and the distributions of burning rate exist in three different diagnostic burning zones (the parallel layer combustion zone, the transition combustion zone and the stable convection zone) along the burning direction, the stable burning rate of the propelling device reaches the maximum when the charge density is 1.45 g·cm^-3.