[en] Highlights: • A predictive model of the equivalent thermal conductivity was established. • Both the heat conduction and radiation were considered. • The predictive results were in good agreement with experiment and FEM. • Some methods for improving the thermal protection performance were proposed. - Abstract: The equivalent thermal conductivity of lattice core sandwich structure was predicted using a novel model. The predictive results were in good agreement with experimental and Finite Element Method results. The thermal conductivity of the lattice core sandwich structure was attributed to both core conduction and radiation. The core conduction caused thermal conductivity only relied on the relative density of the structure. And the radiation caused thermal conductivity increased linearly with the thickness of the core. It was found that the equivalent thermal conductivity of the lattice core sandwich structure showed a highly dependent relationship on temperature. At low temperatures, the structure exhibited a nearly thermal insulated behavior. With the temperature increasing, the thermal conductivity of the structure increased owing to radiation. Therefore, some attempts, such as reducing the emissivity of the core or designing multilayered structure, are believe to be of benefit for improving the thermal protection performance of the structure at high temperatures.