A Chemical Kinetic Mechanism for 2‐Bromo‐3,3,3‐trifluoropropene (2‐BTP) Flame Inhibition

ABSTRACT In this work, we report a detailed chemical kinetic mechanism to describe the flame inhibition chemistry of the fire‐suppressant 2‐bromo‐3,3,3‐trifluoropropene (2‐BTP), under consideration as a replacement for CF 3 Br. Under some conditions, the effectiveness of 2‐BTP is similar to that of CF 3 Br; however, like other potential halon replacements, it failed an U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) qualifying test for its use in cargo bays. Large overpressures are observed in that test and indicate an exothermic reaction of the agent under those conditions. The kinetic model reported herein lays the groundwork to understand the seemingly conflicting behavior on a fundamental basis. The present mechanism and parameters are based on an extensive literature review supplemented with new quantum chemical calculations. The first part of the present article documents the information considered and provides traceability with respect to the reaction set, species thermochemistry, and kinetic parameters. In additional work, presented more fully elsewhere, we have combined the 2‐BTP chemical kinetic mechanism developed here with several other submodels from the literature and then used the combined mechanism to simulate premixed flames over a range of fuel/air stoichiometries and agent loadings. Overall, the modeling results qualitatively predicted observations found in cup‐burner tests and FAA Aerosol Can Tests, including the extinguishing concentrations required and the lean‐to‐rich dependence of mixtures. With these data in hand, in a second phase of the present work, we perform a reaction path analysis of major species under several modeled conditions. This analysis leads to a qualitative understanding of the ability of 2‐BTP to act as both an inhibitor and a fuel, depending on the conditions and suggests areas of the kinetic model that should be further investigated and refined.