Chapter 6

Instructor: Lec Amal Haider

 Three basic requirements to enter into design
of control systems
▪ Transient Response
▪ Stability
▪ Steady State Errors
 In this chapter we will discuss stability, a most
important system specification
 Unstable systems cannot be designed for a
specific transient response or steady state
error requirement
 Three definitions associated with stability
▪ LTI system is Stable, if natural response approaches to
zero as time approaches infinity
▪ LTI system is Unstable, if natural response grows without
bounds as time approaches infinity
▪ LTI system is Marginally Stable, if natural response neither
decays nor grows but remains constant or oscillates as
time approaches infinity

 Definition of stability implies only forced response

remains as natural response approaches zero
 From definition of natural response stability,
▪ System poles in left half plane yields either
exponential decay or damped sinusoid responses
▪ Stable systems have closed loop transfer functions with
poles only in left-half plane
▪ System poles in right half plane yields pure
exponential increasing or exponentially increasing
sinusoid response
▪ Unstable systems have closed loop transfer functions
with at least one pole in the right half plane
▪ System poles on imaginary axis yields pure
sinusoidal oscillations as natural response
▪ Marginally stable systems have closed loop transfer
functions with only imaginary axis poles
Here we cannot tell that given feedback control
system is stable without solving for the roots
 Under certain conditions, some conclusions
about stability of closed loop system are:
 If closed loop transfer functions has only left-
half plane poles , then
▪ factor of denominator consists of product of
terms such as (s+ai), where ai is real and positive
or complex with positive real part
▪ Product of such terms is a polynomial with all
positive coefficients
▪ No term of polynomial is missing
 If closed loop transfer functions has right half
plane poles , then
▪ All signs of coefficients of denominator are not same
▪ If power of S is missing then system is either unstable
or at the best marginally stable

 Unfortunately, if all coefficients of denominator

are positive and not missing, we don’t have
information about location of poles
 It is a method to test for stability without
solving for the roots of denominator of closed
loop systems
 By this method we can tell how many closed
loop system poles are
▪ In left half plane
▪ In right half plane
▪ On imaginary axis
 But we cannot find their location
 This method requires two steps
▪ Generate data table called Ruth table
▪ Interpret Ruth table to tell how many closed loop
system poles are in left half, right half or on jw-
axis
 Power of this method lies in design rather
than analysis
 Consider an equivalent closed loop transfer
function

 We are interested in system poles, so will

focus on to denominator only
 Begin with labeling the rows with power of S
𝑛
from highest power of 𝑆 to 𝑆
o
Initial Layout for Routh Table
Completed Routh Table
 Example 6.1: Make Routh table for system
shown
 No . Of roots of polynomial that are in right
half plane is equal to the no. of sign changes
in the 1st column
 If there is no sign changes in the first column
of Routh table. Then system is stable and all
poles will lie in L.H.P
 Two special cases can occur
▪ Routh Hurwitz table sometimes will have a zero in the
first column of a row
▪ Routh Hurwitz table sometimes will have an entire
row that consists of zeros
 We will first consider case 1 i.e. zero will appear
in the first column and tackle it by two ways
▪ replace Є with zero
▪ Reverse the co- efficient of S
 Example 6.2: Determine the stability of
closed loop transfer function
 Example 6.3: Determine the stability of
closed loop transfer function
 A special case of Routh Table in which entire
row becomes zeros because there is an even
polynomial that is a factor of original
polynomial
 Example 6.4: Determine the number of right
half plane poles in closed loop transfer
function
 Entire row of zeros will appear in Routh table when
a purely even is a factor of original polynomial e.g.
4
S +6S2+8 is an even polynomial; it has only even
powers of S
 Even polynomials only have roots symmetrical
around origin. Symmetry can occur under three
conditions of root position
▪ Roots are symmetrical and real
▪ Roots are symmetrical and imaginary
▪ Roots are quadrental
 Example 6.5: For the given transfer function
tell how many poles are in Right half plane,
left half plane and on jw axis?
 3
 Since row S consists of all zero replace it with
derivative of auxiliary equation
 Auxiliary equation is obtained from row above
the row containing all zeros term
 In our case row S4 forms auxiliary equation i.e.

 Replace derivative of auxiliary equation in row

S3
 Now we draw conclusions about roots of
even polynomial
 Since auxiliary equation was taken from S4 so
even polynomial is of degree 4
 No sign changes occur in even polynomial
from S4 to S0 , so no R.H.P pole exist and due
to symmetry no L.H.P will present. Hence
even polynomial must have all four of its pole
on jw axis
 Two sign changes from S8 to S4 . So two poles
will be in R.H.P and remaining two poles will
exists in L.H.P
 Example 6.6: For a given system find how
many poles are in Right half plane, left half
plane and on jw axis?

 First find closed loop transfer function

 Example 6.9: Find the range of gain K, for a
given system to be stable, unstable,
marginally stable. Assume K > 0

 First find closed loop transfer function

 For K (+ve) all entries in 1st column are
positive except S1 . This can be +ve ,-ve or 0
depending upon value of K
 Three cases to consider
▪ If K < 1386 (stable)
▪ If K > 1386 (unstable)
▪ If K = 1386 (entire row
become zero)
 Auxiliary polynomial will be

 Its derivative will be

 No sign changes in even polynomial means
two poles exist on jw axis
 No sign changes in rows above even
polynomial meaning other two poles will lie in
L.H.P
 Therefore, given system is marginally stable
for K=1386