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Discussion

Reply to “Comment on the paper experimental

study of effect of hydrogen addition on combustion
of low caloric value gas fuels”

Jian Hai Yue a,*, Hang Zhou b, Ming Qiang Zhu b

a
School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, PR China
b
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, PR China

We welcome the opportunity to answer this comment,
because of some parameters such as Markstein length, Lewis
number, etc., their formulas are generally accepted and not
explained here. Now let's answer in order:
Our intension was to study the effect of hydrogen addition
on combustion of low caloric value (LCV) gas fuels, not a
detailed description of the experimental device, and described
the experiment only briefly. Many literature in International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy or other journals (such as Com-
bustion and Flame, Combustion Science and Technology,
Fuel, etc.) also simply describe the experimental system.
In Fig. 2, the heating value and density of the LCV gases and
the blends with hydrogen enrichment listed in Table 1.
Because the composition of the fuel has changed, we get the
result as shown in Figure 2.
Many researchers have argued that applying DI systems
would increase the volumetric efficiency [1e3]. In this study,
referring to the results of literature [4e7], when other engine
parameters remain unchanged, with the increase of engine
power, the volumetric efficiency increases. In this paper,
because hydrogen addition can improve the power of the LCV
gas engine, the addition of hydrogen to the low calorific value
gas enhances the engine volumetric efficiency.
We are afraid that if we write down the measuring prin-
ciple of every parameter in the paper, it will be a textbook, not
a paper, because these parameters (flame thickness, Marks-
tein length, Lewis number, density) are the most basic in the
field of engine combustion flame. As a discussion, let's answer
this question. In this experimental system, the combustion
chamber of the ZS1100M type engine is specially processed
and manufactured, the schlieren method and high-speed
camera are used to obtain the flame image. The schlieren
apparatus model used in measuring Fig. 3 and 4 is A200, the
high-speed camera model is Motion Pro-Y4, and the frequency
is 1000e10000 frames per second. There are many ways to
measure flame thickness [8e10]，in this paper, the flame
thickness is obtained by the following methods: According to
the image taken by schlieren apparatus, the non-stretching
laminar flame propagation velocity Vof flame can be ob-
tained, then, the formula is used to calculate the flame
thickness d [11]:
k
d ¼ a=V ¼
rCp V
where ais the thermal diffusivity of unburned mixture, k, Cp
and r are the thermal conductivity, specific heat at constant
pressures and density of unburned mixture respectively. The
method of measuring Markstein lengths is from literature
[12,13]. Lewis number from Ref. [14], density ratio from
Ref. [15].
At present, there are six main methods to distinguish
vortices [16e21]: local minimum pressure method, velocity
streamline method, vorticity method, D discriminant criterion
method, Q discriminant criterion method and l2 discriminant
criterion method. There's not just one way to discriminate.
Local minimum pressure method and velocity streamline
method can no longer meet the requirements of accurately
capturing vortices, while vorticity method, D discriminant
criterion method, Q discriminant criterion method and l2
discriminant criterion method are based on the two basic
characteristics of vortices core to identify the existence of
vortices. In this paper, Q discriminant criterion method is used

DOIs of original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.08.086, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.12.006.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jhyue@bjtu.edu.cn (J.H. Yue).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.12.002
0360-3199/© 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 4 0 0 8 e4 0 1 0 4009

Table 1 e Heating value and density of the LCV gases and the blends with hydrogen enrichment
Fuel Volume fraction Volume fraction Volume fraction Volumetric calorific Mass calorific Density
CNG (%) CO2 (%) H2 (%) value (MJ/m3) value (MJ/kg) (kg/m3)
RH2 ¼ 10% 45 45 10 16.81 13.78 1.22
RH2 ¼ 30% 35 35 30 15.46 15.94 0.97

to study the evolution process of engine cylinder coherent
structure; l2 discriminant criterion method is used to study the
distribution characteristics of vortices on flame front surface;
while in the analysis of interaction process between vortices
and flame surface, it is necessary to investigate the distribution
of single vortices in different rotating directions, the vorticity
method is used to deal with the development process, where
juj ¼ 1500s1 for vorticity method, Q ¼ 1.0106S2 for Q
discriminant criterion method, and l2 ¼ 1.0106for l2
discriminant criterion method, Fig. 1 shows the comparative
results of four methods for identifying vortices (simulation
diagram), please refer to document [18e21].
In Fig.8 (b), the definition of “combustion progress variable
b”: The flow field of premixed combustion includes unburned
zone, combusted zone and flame surface area in the process of
combustion. The position of flame surface is described by
setting the combustion reaction process variable b. The value
of b is between 0 and 1. When b ¼ 0, the combustion is
completed here. When b ¼ 1, It hasn't started burning yet. The
transition value between the two extremes indicates that
combustion is taking place here.
The combustion reaction process variables can be directly
calculated by the physical properties of the mixture, usually
by the normalized temperature or the mass fraction of the
combustion components [22]. In this paper, The combustion
reaction process variable b was obtained directly through
experiments. The start and stop time (or rotation angle) of
combustion is defined in the experiment, marked as 0 and 1
respectively, and the values between 0 and 1 indicate that
combustion is taking place here.
As a result of an inappropriate citation of one of our papers,
we hereby apologize to the authors (Parsa Tamadonfar, Omer €
L.Gülder) of the original document (Ref.10), The correct
document should be [23].

Fig. 1 e Comparison of the four different vortex identification approaches (n ¼ 1500r/min).

4010 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 4 0 0 8 e4 0 1 0

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