Self-excited Combustion Instabilities Research Articles

Investigation of longitudinal self-excited combustion instability in a micromix hydrogen combustor

The increasing emphasis on low-carbon energy has heightened investigations into hydrogen combustion. This study focuses on the critical yet underexplored topic of thermoacoustic instabilities in micromix hydrogen combustors. We employ a newly designed micromix burner to explore the intricate relationships among acoustic modes, flame dynamics, and flow-vortex interactions. High-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) and OH* chemiluminescence, supplemented by dynamic pressure measurements, are employed to capture dynamic behaviors and instability modes of the flame. Through thermoacoustic network analysis, we can identify two primary self-excited modes: a dominant low-frequency mode oscillating between 520 Hz and 565 Hz, and a secondary high-frequency mode surpassing 4400 Hz, originating from the hydrodynamic instability of the nozzle's jet flow. The low-frequency mode significantly influences the flame dynamics, generating a distinct longitudinal flame oscillation behavior. In particular, the inner premixed flame exhibits a periodic pattern of lifting and re-attachment phenomena. The outer diffusion flame, however, dynamically interacts with the outer shear layer (OSL) and the shed outer vortex rings (OVRs), which gives rise to notable deformations in the flame surface, manifesting as neck and swell structures propagating downstream with the OVRs. Furthermore, the dynamics of the OSL and OVRs are attributed to the fluctuations in the bulk flow velocity and local equivalence ratio at the nozzle exit, which are sustained by pressure oscillations induced by thermoacoustics. This presents important insights into the interplay between hydrodynamics and thermoacoustics in the formation of combustion instability in the micromix hydrogen combustor.

An experimental study of thermoacoustic instabilities in a RP-3 fueled multi-swirl stabilized lean direct injection combustor

An investigation of self-excited combustion instabilities in a RP-3 fueled, multi-swirl stabilized, lean direct injection (LDI) combustor was performed and investigated with different operating conditions (inlet Reynolds number and fuel–air ratio (FAR)). Pressure fluctuation and heat release data were simultaneously collected using a 3-channel synchronous acquisition system. The results show that as the FAR increases, combustion transitions from a low oscillation mode to a high oscillation mode. During the modal transition, the oscillating flame structure, formed by vortex shedding in the shear layer and the recirculation zone, is then transformed into contraction and expansion movements from the front of the central recirculation zone towards the downstream and radial directions of the combustor. When combustion is in a low oscillation mode, the driving capability of the flame is relatively low. Upon entering a high oscillation mode, the overall driving energy of the flame can maintain combustion in a limit cycle oscillation state.

Large Eddy Simulation and Acoustic Analysis of Combustion Instability in an Annular Combustor with Low-Swirl Flames.

Self-excited combustion instability in an annular combustor with low-swirl flames is studied with a combination of large eddy simulation (LES) and acoustic solvers. Acoustic analysis with a Helmholtz solver provides an estimate of frequencies and modal structures in the annular combustor. LES gives detailed modal dynamics for specific instability modes. Combustion instabilities in the annular combustor including longitudinal, spinning, and standing modes are successfully captured in a single LES. Numerical results show that the instability modes are not constant; they switch among these modes randomly and rapidly. The flow oscillates back and forth in phase with the largest pressure amplitude located near the outlet of the injectors for the longitudinal mode. The azimuthal instability oscillates in the 1A2L mode of the annular system. In the spinning mode, the pressure antinodes move forward while the modal structure keeps constant. For the standing mode, the locations of pressure antinodes are fixed in the annular combustor and the fluctuations at the pressure antinodes keep out of phase. The near-zero value of the mean spin ratio indicates that the dominant azimuthal mode is the standing mode. The azimuthal modes captured by LES are in good agreement with that predicted by Helmholtz solver in terms of frequency and modal structure. The maximum deviation of the predicted frequency is less than 5%. This adds values before the low-swirl injector is placed into the actual annular combustor.

Experimental Studies on Suppression of Combustion Instability with the Addition of Helium

When combustion instability occurs, fluctuation in the release of heat couples with oscillating pressure, while the sensitivity of flame to acoustic disturbance restricts the oscillation intensity. This paper investigates the efficacy of helium in suppressing combustion instability. The flame structure, its sensitivity to acoustic disturbance and the inhibition of oscillating pressure with the addition of helium were studied by means of open tests, external-excited and self-excited combustion instability experiments. First of all, the addition of helium made larger flame surface area, which shaped the distributed flame, and the heat was such released over a broader space. Then, the external-exited combustion instability experiments confirmed that adding helium to fuel could decrease the sensitivity of flame to acoustic disturbance. Finally, Helium was used in the case of self-excited combustion instability to further investigate its effectiveness on the oscillation suppression. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) methods were used to study flame fluctuation intensity. The results showed that the amplitudes of oscillating pressure were greatly reduced by the added helium. For 250Hz mode, adding helium with 20% of fuel flow could significantly reduce the flame pulsation and reduce the pulsation pressure by more than half. However, for the 160hz mode, more helium should be added to achieve better results. When the helium flow exceeded 80% of fuel flow, the combustion instability could be converted to stable combustion.

Study on Suppression of Combustion Instability using Quarter Wavelength Tube

The passive suppression of combustion instability by quarter wavelength tube was hereby studied to absorb the oscillation pressure with large amplitudes caused by combustion instability. The suppression effects of quarter wavelength tube on combustion instability were systematically analyzed by combining the acoustic numerical simulation and the experimental research methods. Firstly, the influence of quarter wavelength tube on the acoustic characteristics of the system was analyzed using acoustic numerical simulation; and then, the acoustic absorption characteristics to external acoustic disturbance and the suppression effects on the self-excited combustion instability were experimentally studied. The results show that the quarter wavelength tube can effectively absorb the acoustic pressure when the dominant frequency of acoustic pressure is close to the resonance frequency of the system, and can effectively suppress the combustion instability under acoustic resonance. However, given that the quarter wavelength tube adds adjoint dominant frequencies after eliminating the original resonant frequency of the system, and the combustion instability is stabilized on the adjoint dominant frequencies, combustion instability suppression is different from noise suppression. In addition, the diameter of wavelength tube exercises obvious effects on the above characteristics. All these make it necessary to determine the best parameters and the maximum suppression efficiency by combining numerical simulation and experiments. The research results of this paper provide theoretical and technical supports for the suppression of combustion instability by the quarter wavelength tube.

Numerical investigations on the beating behavior of self-excited combustion instability in a hydrogen-fueled Rijke type combustor

Beating, a specific oscillation mode of combustion instability, occurred in a premixed hydrogen fueled Rijke tube was investigated. A two-dimensional transient numerical model for the self-excited combustion instability was developed and well validated. In a beating cycle, the amplitude of pressure oscillations increased to 1400 Pa and then decreased to 70 Pa, exhibiting an obvious feature of low frequency modulation. The joint time-frequency analysis showed that the dominant frequency shifted from 230 Hz to 330 Hz over time at each cycle. To shed lights on the inherent mechanisms of beating instability, the coupling processes between the combustion and flow dynamics were investigated. At each beating cycle, the shapes of flame were relatively stable in growing stage, while strongly fluctuated in transition stage and recovered to stable state in decaying stage. Notably, due to the large amplitude of pressure oscillations, an obvious recirculation zone was formed around the flame and sucked the high temperature exhausted gas to the flame root during the transition stage. Accordingly, the high temperature area was formed around the flame and affected the oscillation mode. By employing the proper orthogonal decomposition analysis, the apparent oscillations at 1 Hz were observed in the modes of heat release rate, velocity vectors and temperature. Later, it was found that with the increase of the amplitude of pressure oscillations, the mass flow rate of air supply at tube inlet dramatically decreased, which reduced the oxygen around the flame and changed the fluctuation mode of heat release rate. The coupling process was also identified by the phase difference and Rayleigh index.

Self-excited instability regimes of a confined turbulent jet flame at elevated pressure

The dynamic response of a confined, premixed turbulent jet flame is investigated at high thermal power densities (∼25 MW/m2/bar) and turbulence levels (Rejet∼ 5 ×105). As equivalence ratio and inlet jet velocity are varied at these conditions, multiple instability modes coexist: a low-amplitude instability (p′/pC≲ 9%) with longitudinal-mode fluctuations (1L and 2L) and two high-amplitude (p′/pC≲ 20%), high-frequency, transverse instability modes. While the axial modes are ubiquitous across the operational envelope, the transverse mode selection is sensitive to the equivalence ratio and reactant jet velocity. A linear stability analysis (LSA) of the confined base flow is performed to explore the flame perturbation in response to the density and temperature gradients, and the shear-layer instabilities in the flow. The high-frequency combustion instabilities are associated with a combined azimuthal hydrodynamic mode of the reactant jet, (1) at the combustion chamber near field and, (2) downstream in the fully developed region of the combustor. An excellent agreement was observed between the convectively unstable modes identified by the temporal LSA and the self-excited combustion instabilities in the experiment.

Effects of flue gas recirculation on self-excited combustion instability and NOx emission of a premixed flame

Combustion instability has been a common problem accompanied with the low NOx emission technologies for the industrial premixed burner. The effects of flue gas recirculation ratio (FR) on the characteristics of combustion instability and NOx emissions of a premixed flame in a 350 kW industrial boiler are investigated by experimental tests and numerical simulations. The cavity acoustic mode of the whole chamber is computed by a Helmholtz solver combined with CFD simulations. As the FR increased from 0 to 20%, the NOx emission is reduced by around 85% and self-excited combustion instability is trigged when the FR exceeds 10%. Four modes - combustion noise, limited cycle, intermittence and breathing - of combustion instability with the different FRs are recorded in the experiment. Two dominant pressure oscillation frequencies ranging from 21 to 25 Hz and from 1 to 2 Hz are observed when the FR is 10–20%. The measured pressure oscillation modes are compared with the acoustic simulation results. The results show that these two dominant frequencies are consistent with the first and second acoustic modes of the whole boiler cavity. The difference between the dominant oscillation frequency and the cavity acoustic eigenfrequency may be caused by the time delay of the response of the flame. The high amplitude pressure oscillations featured as ultra-low frequency (1–2 Hz) are caused by the periodic extinction and ignition of the flame under a high FR (>18%).

Experimental investigation on effects of injection distribution on combustion instability in a model rocket combustor

Self-excited combustion instabilities of transverse modes were experimentally investigated in a rectangular multi-injector model combustor, operating with the bipropellants O2/CH4. The propellants were injected through a linear array of five oxidizer-centered shear coaxial injectors into the combustor. High-amplitude limit cycles obtained in hot-fire tests were analyzed in detail. Different combustion instability modes, including first and second width modes, were observed in cases with three different injection distribution schemes. Hence, the injection distribution strongly determined the combustion dynamics. One insight can be gained that the stable combustion could be achieved by properly designing the propellants' injection distributions.

Proper orthogonal and dynamic mode decomposition analyses of nonlinear combustion instabilities in a solid-fuel ramjet combustor

In ramjet propulsion systems, syelf-excited combustion instability is highly undesirable. It may lead to violent structural vibration and even mission failure. For this, self-excited combustion instabilities in such SFRJ are investigated numerically by 2D unsteady Reynolds-Average Navier-Stokes (URANS) model and varying the inlet mass flow rate ṁair. When combustion instability occurs, large-amplitude temperature, velocity, and reacting species wavy motions are observed along the axial flow direction. To shed light on the flow features and the energy distribution among the unstable eigenmodes, proper orthogonal (POD) and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) analyses of nonlinear combustion instabilities in a solid-fuel Ramjet (SFRJ) combustor are conducted. The POD studies reveal that the fluctuation energy of the first six modes contributes to 99% of the total fluctuation energy of all modes. It means that the main features of the SFRJ combustors could be captured by using the first six modes. Unlike POD studies, DMD analysis captures the frequency information and spatial structures in the entire flow field. Examining the DMD growth rate reveals that all dominant DMD eigenmodes are marginally stable (growth rate = 0) or unstable (positive growth rate). And the frequency of each dominant mode could be enhanced by 3–10 Hz as theṁair is increased by 0.2 kg/s. The mode energy decreases with the increase of the mode order, with the decrease up to around 90%. The DMD analysis on velocity field indicated that the flow separation could be observed near the backward facing step. And the DMD mode structure of the temperature field can significantly affect the mode structures of Mach number and YCO2 field. In general, the present work provides detailed analyses of the SFRJ flow field in the presence of self-excited combustion instability by using POD and DMD approaches.

A combined oscillation cycle involving self-excited thermo-acoustic and hydrodynamic instability mechanisms

The paper examines the combined effects of several interacting thermo-acoustic and hydrodynamic instability mechanisms that are known to influence self-excited combustion instabilities often encountered in the late design stages of modern low-emission gas turbine combustors. A compressible large eddy simulation approach is presented, comprising the flame burning regime independent, modeled probability density function evolution equation/stochastic fields solution method. The approach is subsequently applied to the PRECCINSTA (PREDiction and Control of Combustion INSTAbilities) model combustor and successfully captures a fully self-excited limit-cycle oscillation without external forcing. The predicted frequency and amplitude of the dominant thermo-acoustic mode and its first harmonic are shown to be in excellent agreement with available experimental data. Analysis of the phase-resolved and phase-averaged fields leads to a detailed description of the superimposed mass flow rate and equivalence ratio fluctuations underlying the governing feedback loop. The prevailing thermo-acoustic cycle features regular flame liftoff and flashback events in combination with a flame angle oscillation, as well as multiple hydrodynamic phenomena, i.e., toroidal vortex shedding and a precessing vortex core. The periodic excitation and suppression of these hydrodynamic phenomena is confirmed via spectral proper orthogonal decomposition and found to be controlled by an oscillation of the instantaneous swirl number. Their local impact on the heat release rate, which is predominantly modulated by flame-vortex roll-up and enhanced mixing of fuel and oxidizer, is further described and investigated. Finally, the temporal relationship between the flame “surface area,” flame-averaged mixture fraction, and global heat release rate is shown to be directly correlated.

Experimental Investigation of Self-Excited Combustion Instabilities in a LOX/LNG Rocket Combustor

Two types of combustion instabilities were observed in a multi-injector research combustor with liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas (LOX/LNG) propellants operating at conditions similar to an upper stage rocket engine. The first was identified as an excited tangential acoustic mode of the combustion chamber and can be explained by coupling with the LOX injectors, similar to the mechanism previously observed in tests with propellants. The other type is characterized by longitudinal acoustic oscillations with peak-to-peak amplitudes of at least 40% of the mean chamber pressure. Analysis of the test data suggests that sudden upstream displacement of a lifted flame may be the trigger mechanism for the second type of instabilities.

The Effect of the Degree of Premixedness on Self-Excited Combustion Instability

Abstract The use of lean, premixed fuel and air mixtures is a common strategy to reduce NOx emissions in gas turbine combustors. However, this strategy causes an increased susceptibility to self-excited instability, which manifests as fluctuations in heat release rate, flow velocity, and combustor acoustics that oscillate in-phase in a feedback loop. This study considers the effect of the level of premixedness on the self-excited instability in a single-nozzle combustor. In this system, the fuel can be injected inside the nozzle to create a partially-premixed mixture or far upstream to create a fully-premixed mixture, varying the level of premixedness of the fuel and air entering the combustor. When global equivalence ratio is held constant, the cases with higher levels of premixing have higher instability amplitudes. High-speed CH* chemiluminescence imaging shows that the flame for these cases is more compact and the distribution of the heat release rate oscillations is more concentrated near the corner of the combustor in the outer recirculation zones. Rayleigh index images, which are a metric for the relative phase of pressure and heat release rate oscillations, suggest that vortex rollup in the corner region is primarily responsible for determining instability characteristics when premixedness is varied. This finding is further supported through analysis of local flame edge dynamics.

High frequency combustion instability control by discharge plasma in a model rocket engine combustor

To suppress the high frequency combustion instability of rocket engines, quasi-direct current (quasi-DC) discharge plasma is considered in combination with special arrangements in a rocket engine combustor. After establishing an internal reacting flow field model of a rocket combustor and a phenomenological plasma model, the influence of quasi-DC discharge plasma on high frequency combustion instability is numerically investigated. The results show that the characteristics of the high frequency combustion instability in the combustor are captured very well through the simulation. Based on the DES turbulence model, a positive feedback process is clearly observed for the self-excited combustion instability. The mean temperature and pressure of the combustor are not sensitive to the occurrence of quasi-DC discharge plasma. The pressure histories of the combustor and their characteristic oscillating frequencies are not affected by the plasma when only one actuator is in operation. However, the oscillating amplitudes of the pressure are reduced within a certain time when several actuators are in operation. The heat release becomes more diffusive and more eddies form around the injector faceplate with an increasing number of plasma filaments. Mainly through the reduction of local heat release, the plasma is capable of affecting the high frequency combustion instability in the combustor. To better control high frequency combustion instability, the optimal arrangement is a double-plasma filaments with symmetrical actuators.

Passive Suppression of Self-Excited Combustion Instabilities in Liquid Spray Flame Using Microperforated Plate

Abstract This paper presents an experimental investigation of using a microperforated plate (MPP) backed by an adjustable cavity to mitigate the combustion instabilities of liquid fuel swirl flame. The acoustic properties of MPPs with different porosities and aperture diameters were first tested in an impedance tube. At low bias flow rates, the sound reflection coefficients of MPPs with large holes commensurate well with the Luong model, and at high bias flow rates, the results of MPPs with small holes agree well with the predictions. The maximum sound absorption coefficient of each panel at the target frequency exceeded 95%. The perforated panels were then selected and integrated into a spray combustor individually. It was shown that the maximum reduction of pressure and heat release fluctuations inside the chamber was 14.91 dB and 13.40 dB, respectively. After noise elimination, the main frequencies of pressure and CH* signals were slightly shifted toward low frequencies. When the combustion conditions change, the MPPs operating near the optimal bias flow rates still have good sound absorption characteristics. After noise suppression, the synchronization between pressure and heat release signals was reduced, and the flame shapes were relatively stable. More generally, this study can promote the application of MPPs under bias flow in stabilizing the liquid spray combustion.

Direct comparison of self-excited instabilities in mesoscale multinozzle flames and conventional large-scale swirl-stabilized flames

The present experimental investigation demonstrates important trends and offers physical insights into self-excited combustion instabilities in mesoscale multinozzle flames composed of sixty small injectors. Here we focus on the response of a prototypical micromixer-type injector assembly, fabricated using an additive manufacturing technique, in comparison with the behavior of conventional large-scale swirl-stabilized flames. Our results highlight that the development of self-excited instabilities in unconventional mesoscale flames is fundamentally different from that in large-scale swirl flames, in terms of the onset of instabilities, nonlinear modal dynamics, and amplitude/frequency of limit cycle oscillations under the same operating conditions. These differences are attributable to the alteration in local flow/flame structures and the resulting flame-to-flame/flame-wall interaction mechanisms. An integrated analysis of large datasets reveals that the two interacting swirl-stabilized flames tend to couple strongly with a low-frequency L1 mode at about 220 Hz, whereas the sixty-injector small-scale flames are capable of triggering multiple higher-frequency instabilities at ∼ 310, ∼ 470, and ∼ 600 Hz. That is, the use of the micromixer-type injector assembly in a lean-premixed system causes the occurrence of combustion instabilities to shift toward a higher equivalence ratio. However, due to the absence of a large recirculation zone near the primary reaction region, the combustion system equipped with the small-scale multinozzle injectors was found to suffer from lean blowoff phenomena at low equivalence ratio.

Experimental investigation of combustion instabilities of a mesoscale multinozzle array in a lean-premixed combustor

Self-excited combustion instabilities in a mesoscale multinozzle array, also referred to as a micromixer-type injector, have been experimentally investigated in a lean-premixed tunable combustor operating with preheated methane and air. The injector assembly consists of sixty identical swirl injectors of 6.5 mm inner diameter, which are evenly distributed across the combustor dump plane. Their flow paths are divided into two groups – inner and outer stages – to form radially stratified reactant stoichiometry for the control of self-excited instabilities. OH PLIF measurements of stable flames reveal that the presence of radial staging has a remarkable influence on stabilization mechanisms, reactant jet penetration/merging, and interactions between adjacent flame fronts. In an inner enrichment case, two outer (leaner) streams merge into a single jet structure, whereas the inner (richer) reactant jets penetrate far downstream without noticeable interactions between neighboring flames. The constructed stability map in the 〈ϕi, ϕo〉 domain indicates that strong self-excited instabilities occur under even split and outer enrichment conditions at relatively high global equivalence ratios. This is attributed to large-scale flame surface deformation in the streamwise direction, as manifested by vigorous detachment/attachment movements. The use of the inner fuel staging method was found, however, to limit the growth of large-amplitude heat release rate fluctuations, because the center flames are securely anchored during the whole period of oscillation, giving rise to a moderate lateral motion. We demonstrate that the collective motion of sixty flames – rather than the individual local flame dynamics – play a central role in the development of limit cycle oscillations. This suggests that the distribution pattern of the injector array, in combination with the radial fuel staging scheme, is the key to the control of the instabilities.

100 kHz PIV in a liquid-fueled gas turbine swirl combustor at 1 MPa

Simultaneous 100 kHz particle image velocimetry (PIV) and 10 kHz OH* chemiluminescence (CL) were used to investigate flow and flame dynamics in a liquid-fueled, swirl-stabilized, piloted burner operated at 1.0 MPa. The PIV measurements were focused on the inner recirculation zone (IRZ), which forms downstream of an annular bluff-body feature that separates the pilot and main reactant jets and plays a critical role in flame stabilization. The OH* CL images captured the large-scale flame structure and dynamics. For the operating condition studied in this work, a self-excited combustion instability was present and caused axisymmetric variations in flame length and global heat release at a frequency of 810 Hz. Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) was performed on the measured velocity fields to isolate fluctuations associated with the thermoacoustic mode from other dynamic flow processes. The DMD results showed that the 810 Hz instability causes strong fluctuations of both the axial and radial velocity components within the shear layer between the pilot jet and IRZ, along with concomitant changes in the size and shape of the IRZ. The DMD spatial modes also revealed periodic generation of vortices within the pilot-IRZ shear layer at frequencies ranging from 4–5.5 kHz. Wavelet analysis was used to study the interaction between these smaller-scale flow structures and the large-scale flow-flame dynamics associated with the combustion instability. The frequency magnitude related to vortex shedding was shown to fluctuate with the 810 Hz instability. The peak frequency magnitude followed the maximum radial velocity in the shear layer, which occurs when the IRZ is at its farthest radial extent and the velocity gradients in the pilot-IRZ shear layer are the strongest. The characterization of cross-scale, flow-flame coupling in this highly turbulent, high-pressure flame was enabled by the state-of-the-art 100 kHz PIV measurements.

Flame-acoustic response measurements in a high-pressure, 42-injector, cryogenic rocket thrust chamber

This work presents measurements of acoustically driven flame dynamics in a 42-element, cryogenic oxygen-hydrogen rocket thrust chamber under supercritical injection conditions. The experiment shows self-excited combustion instabilities for certain operating conditions, and this work describes the nature of the flame dynamics driving the acoustic field, as far as it can be ascertained from state-of-the-art optical measurements. Optical access has been realized in the combustion chamber with both fibre-optical probes and a viewing window. The probes collect point-like measurements of filtered OH* radiation. Their signals were used to calculate the gain and phase of intensity oscillations with respect to acoustic pressure for both stable and unstable operating conditions. Through the window, synchronized high-speed imaging of the flame in filtered OH* and blue radiation wavelengths was collected. The 2D flame response was related to the local acoustic pressure to investigate the distributed intensity and phase relationships. The flame response from OH* measurements is in agreement with the theory of Rayleigh. For stable conditions the oscillations of combustion and pressure were out of phase, whereas for an excited chamber 1T mode the oscillations were closely in phase. The integrated Rayleigh index from blue imaging was not consistent with the OH* results. The reason lies in the depth of field captured by this type of imaging, and must be used in a complementary fashion together with OH* imaging. The flame response values and 2D visualization presented in this work are expected to be of value for the validation of numerical modelling of combustion instabilities.

Cross-talk-interaction-induced combustion instabilities in a can-annular lean-premixed combustor configuration

The prediction of self-excited combustion instabilities in a can-annular gas turbine combustion system is a significant challenge, mainly because the instabilities originate from the acoustic interactions between adjacent combustors via a cross-talk region upstream of the first stage turbine nozzles. Detailed characterization of these instabilities requires a thorough understanding of engine-level dynamics. Until now, a comprehensive experimental examination of such a can-annular configuration had not been conducted. Here we present new experiments using four lean fully-premixed swirl-stabilized combustors connected via a full-annular cross-talk section. We demonstrate that the global fluctuations at limit cycles are either in-phase interactions (push-push modes) or one of two different forms of out-of-phase interactions (push-pull modes), subject to uniform and non-uniform equivalence ratio combinations. Under certain symmetric conditions, the can-annular system undergoes in-phase synchronous modulations (Type I), giving rise to the formation of pressure antinodes at the inlets of the four combustors and in the cross-talk region. By contrast, out-of-phase interactions are sustained in the form of either an alternating pattern in four-coupled combustors (Type II) or a push-pull interaction in two opposite combustors only (Type III). The latter is dictated by strong out-of-phase fluctuations between two of the combustors and a pressure node-like condition – thermoacoustically decoupled from the global fluctuations – over the entire region of the other two combustors, experimentally demonstrating the existence of mode localization in can-annular thermoacoustic instabilities. We show that the mode clustering phenomenon is responsible for the excitation of closely-spaced multiple eigenmodes in the can-annular acoustic environment, and as a consequence the system can feature a mixed state with several distinct types of interaction patterns. By analyzing a large amount of experimental data acquired systematically for coupled two-combustor and four-can-annular configurations, we demonstrate that longitudinal-mode instabilities in a can-annular combustion system will preferentially emerge in the form of out-of-phase interactions.