Chapter -3

System stability

Bewnet Getachew
Gollis University
Outline
3.1The Concept of Stability
3.2 The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion
3.3 The Relative Stability of Feedback Control Systems
3.4 Design Examples
3.5 System Stability Using Control Design Software
3.8 Sequential Design Example: Disk Drive Read System

Desired Outcomes
Upon completion of Chapter 3, students should:
• Understand the concept of stability of dynamic systems.
• Be aware of the key concepts of absolute and relative
stability.
 Be familiar with the notion of bounded-input, bounded-
output stability.
• Understand the relationship of the s-plane pole locations
(for transfer function models) and of the eigenvalue
locations (for state variable models) to system stability.
 Know how to construct a Routh array and be able to
employ the Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion to determine
stability.
3.1 THE CONCEPT OF STABILITY

When considering the design and analysis of feedback control

systems, stability is of the utmost importance.
We can say that a closed-loop feedback system is either stable or it
is not stable.
This type of stable/not stable characterization is referred to as
absolute stability. A system possessing absolute stability is called
a stable system.
Given that a closed-loop system is stable, we can further
characterize the degree of stability. This is referred to as relative
stability.
A stable system is defined as a dynamic system with a bounded
response to a bounded input.
FIGURE 3.1
The stability of a
cone.
 FIGURE 3.2 Stability in the s-plane.
The location in the s-plane of the poles of a system indicates the
resulting transient response. The poles in the left-hand portion of the
s-plane result in a decreasing response for disturbance inputs.
Similarly, poles on the jω-axis and in the right-hand plane result in a
neutral and an increasing response, respectively, for a disturbance
input.
Marginally stable system
characteristic equation has simple roots on the imaginary axis (jw-
axis) with all other roots in the left half-plane.
Output will be sustained oscillations for a bounded input, unless the
input is a sinusoid. For this case, the output becomes unbounded.

For example, if the characteristic equation of a closed-loop system is

(s + 10)(s2 + 16) = 0,
then the system is said to be marginally stable. If this system is
excited by a sinusoid of frequency ω = 4, the output becomes
unbounded.
3.2 THE ROUTH-HURWITZ STABILITY CRITERION

The Routh-Hurwitz stability method provides an answer to the

question of stability by considering the characteristic equation of the
system. The characteristic equation in the Laplace variable is written
as

As per Routh-Hurwitz criteria, the necessary conditions for a system

to be stable are,
(1) None of the co-efficient‟ of the Characteristic equation should be
missing or zero.
(2) All the co-efficient‟ should be real & should have the same sign.
A sufficient condition for a system to be stable is that each & every term of
the column of the Routh array must be positive or should have the same sign.
Routh array can be obtained as follows.
Similarly we can evaluate rest of the elements,
The following are the limitations of Routh-Hurwitz stability criteria,
(1) It is valid only if the Characteristic equation is algebraic.
(2) If any co-efficient of the Characteristic equation is complex or contains
power of „ j‟, this criterion cannot be applied.
(3) It gives information about how many roots are lying in the RHS of S-plane;
values of the roots are not available. Also it cannot distinguish between real &
complex roots.
Special cases in Routh-Hurwitz criteria:
(1) When the term in a row is zero, but all other terms are non-zeroes then
substitute a small positive number for zero & proceed to evaluate the rest of
the elements. When the column term is zero, it means that there is an
imaginary root.
(2) All zero row: In the case, write auxiliary equation from preceding row,
differentiate this equation & substitute all zero row by the co-efficient‟
obtained by differentiating the auxiliary equation. This case occurs when the
roots are in pairs. The system is limitedly stable.
The Routh-Hurwitz criterion states that the number of roots of
q(s) with positive real parts is equal to the number of changes
in sign of the first column of the Routh array.
This criterion requires that there be no changes in sign in the first
column for a stable system.
Four distinct cases or configurations of the first column array must
be considered, and each must be treated separately and requires
suitable modifications of the array calculation procedure:

(1) No element in the first column is zero;

(2) There is a zero in the first column, but some other
elements of the row containing the zero in the first
column are nonzero;
(3) There is a zero in the first column, and the other
elements of the row containing the zero are also zero;
(4) As in the third case, but with repeated roots on the jω-
axis.
Case 1. No element in the first column is zero.
EXAMPLE 1 Second-order system
The characteristic polynomial of a second-order system is

The Routh array is written as

Where

Therefore, the requirement for a stable second-order system is simply that all
the coefficients be positive or all the coefficients be negative.
EXAMPLE 2 Third-order system
The characteristic polynomial of a third-order system is

Where

For the third-order system to be stable, it is necessary and sufficient that the
coefficients be positive and a1a2 >a0a3- The condition when a2al = a0a3 results in
a marginal stability case, and one pair of roots lies on the imaginary axis in the
s-plane.
This marginal case is recognized as Case 3 because there is a zero in the first
column when a2a1=a0a3. It will be discussed under Case 3.
Example 3
Characteristic equations that result in no zero elements in the first row, let us
consider the polynomial

The polynomial satisfies all the necessary conditions because all the
coefficients exist and are positive. Therefore, utilizing the Routh array, we have

Because two changes in sign appear in the first column, we find that two roots
of q(s) lie in the right-hand plane, and our prior knowledge is confirmed.
 Case 2. There is a zero in the first column, but some other elements of the
row containing the zero in the first column are nonzero.
If only one element in the array is zero, it may be replaced with a small positive
number, ϵ that is allowed to approach zero after completing the array. For
example, consider the following characteristic polynomial:

The Routh array is

then There are two sign changes due to
the large negative number in the first
column, C1 = -12/ϵ. Therefore, the
system is unstable, and two roots lie
in the right half of the plane.

w
here
3.4 Pole-Zero
The transfer function provides a basis for
determining important system response
characteristics without solving the complete
differential equation. As defined, the transfer
function is a rational function in the complex variable
s = σ + jω, that is

s of the equation N(s) =0 are defined to be the system zero

ts of the equation D(s) =0 are defined to be the system pole
when s = Zi the numerator N(s) = 0 and the transfer
function vanishes, that is
 And similarly when s = Pi the denominator
polynomial D(s) = 0 and the value of the transfer
function becomes unbounded,

All of the coefficients of polynomials N(s) and D(s)

are real, therefore the poles and zeros must be
either
The purely real,
Pole-Zero Plotor appear in complex conjugate
pairs.
A system is characterized by its poles and zeros in
the sense that they allow reconstruction of the
input/output differential equation. In general, the
poles and zeros of a transfer function may be
complex, and the system dynamics may be
represented graphically by plotting their locations on
the complex s-plane, whose axes represent the real
and imaginary parts of the complex variable s. Such
plots are known as pole-zero plots. It is usual to
Figure 3.16: The pole-zero plot for a typical third-
order system with one real pole and a complex
conjugate pole pair, and a single real zero.
Example 3.11
Determine and plot poles and zeros of the transfer
function H(s) given below.

Solution
3.5 System stability
The stability of a linear system may be determined
directly from its transfer function. An nth order linear
system is asymptotically stable only if all of the
components in the homogeneous response from a
finite set of initial conditions decay to zero as time
increases, or

Where the pi are the system poles. In a stable

system all components of the homogeneous
response must decay to zero as time increases. If
any pole has a positive real part there is a
component in the output that increases without
bound, causing the system to be unstable.
In order for a linear Program 1
system to be stable, all H = tf([1 3],[1 -2]);
of its poles must have iopzmap(H)
grid; hold on
negative real parts that
are they must all lie Program 2
within the left-half of b=[1 3];
the s-plane. An a=[1 -2];
[zer,pol] = tf2zp(b,a);
―unstable‖ pole, lying zplane(zer,pol)
in the right half of the grid; hold on
s-plane, generates a
component in the
system homogeneous
response that increases
without bound from any
finite initial conditions.
A system having one or
more poles lying on the