System Stability

Date: 4th September 2008

Prepared by: Megat Syahirul Amin bin Megat Ali
Email: megatsyahirul@unimap.edu.my
 Introduction
 System Stability
 Routh-Hurwitz Criterion
 Construction of Routh Table
 Determining System Stability
 Stability is the most important system specification.
If a system is unstable, the transient response and
steady-state errors are in a moot point.

c(t )  c forced (t )  cnatural (t )

 Definition of stability, for linear, time-invariant

system by using natural response:
 A system is stable if the natural response approaches zero
as time approaches infinity.
 A system is unstable if the natural response approaches
infinity as time approaches infinity
 A system is marginally stable if the natural response neither
decays nor grows but remains constant or oscillates.
 Definition of stability using the total response
bounded-input, bounded-output (BIBO):
i. A system is stable if every bounded input yields a
bounded output.
ii. A system is unstable if any bounded input yields an
unbounded output.
 Absolute Stability:
i. The absolute stability indicates whether the system is
stable or not.
ii. This is indicated by the presence of one or more poles
in RHP.
 Relative Stability:
i. Relative stability refers to the degree of stability of a
stable system described by above.
ii. This depends on the transfer function of the system,
which is represented by both the numerator (that
yields the zeros) and denominator (that yields the
poles).
iii. This can then be referred to in the study of system
response either in time or frequency domain.
 Stable systems have closed-loop transfer functions
with poles only in the left half-plane.
 Unstable systems have closed-loop transfer
functions with at least one pole in the right half-
plane and/or poles of multiplicity greater than 1 on
the imaginary axis.
 Marginally stable systems have closed-loop transfer
functions with only imaginary axis poles of
multiplicity 1 and poles on the imaginary axis.
 To determine stability of a given system, we have to
consider the manner in which the system is operating,
whether open-loop or closed-loop.
i. If the system is operating in closed-loop, first find the
closed loop transfer function.
ii. Find the closed-loop poles.
iii. If the order of the system is 2 or less, factorise the
denominator of the transfer function. This will provide
the roots of the polynomial, or the closed-loop poles of
the system.
iv. If the system order is higher than 2 nd-order, use
construct Routh table and apply Routh-Hurwitz Criterion.
v. Any poles that exist on the RHP will indicate that the
system is unstable.
 Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion: The number of
roots of the polynomial that are in the right half-
plane is equal to the number of changes in the first
column.
 Systems with the transfer function having all poles in
the LHP is stable.
 Hence, we can conclude that a system is stable if
there is no change of sign in the first column of its
Routh table.
 However, special cases exists when:
i. There exists zero only in the first column.
ii. The entire row is zero.
 If a polynomial is given by:

T ( s )  an s n  an 1s n 1  .....  a1s  a0  0

Where,
an, an-1, …, a1, a0 are constants
n = 1, 2, 3,…, ∞
 The necessary conditions for stability are:
i. All the coefficients of the polynomial are of the same sign. If
not, there are poles on the right hand side of the s-plane.
ii. All the coefficient should exist accept for a0.
 For the sufficient condition, we must form a Routh-
array.
an an  2
an 1 an  3 an 1an  2  an an 3
b1   
an 1 an 1

an an  4
a a a a  an an  5
b2   n 1 n  5  n 1 n  4
an 1 an 1
 For the sufficient condition, we must formed a Routh-
array.
an 1 an 3
b1 b2 b1an 3  an 1b2
c1   
b1 b1

an 1 an 5
b b3 b a  an 1b3
c2   1  1 n 5
b1 b1

h1 h2
i i i h hi k1  i2
j1   1 2  1 2 1 2
i1 i1
 Equivalent closed-loop transfer function

Initial layout for Routh table

Completed Routh table

 Example: How many roots exist on RHP?
 Chapter 6
i. Nise N.S. (2004). Control System Engineering (4th
Ed), John Wiley & Sons.
ii. Dorf R.C., Bishop R.H. (2001). Modern Control
Systems (9th Ed), Prentice Hall.
“If we knew what we were doing, it would not be
called research, would it?…"