THE STABILITY OF LINEAR FEEDBACK SYSTEMS

In this Lecture:
 The Concept of Stability
 The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion
 The Relative Stability of Feedback control Systems
 CONCEPT OF STABILITY

Stability is of extreme importance when considering the design and analysis of

feedback control systems.

 A stable system is defined as a system with bounded (limited) response to a

bounded (limited) input.

If a dynamic system is subjected to an input, or initial condition, its response

may be decreasing, neutral, or increasing. The location in the s-plane of the poles
of a system indicates the resulting transient response.

 Poles in left-hand portion of the s-plane result in decreasing response

 Poles on jω-axis result in neutral response

 Poles in right-hand portion of the s-plane result in increasing response

 CONCEPT OF STABILITY

Illustration of stability
Consider the systems . The
impulse response of the three systems is shown.

Clearly the poles of desirable dynamic systems must lie in the left-hand
portion of the s-plane.
ABSOLUTE STABILITY

A closed-loop feedback system is either STABLE or UNSTABLE. This type of

characterization is referred to as absolute stability. A system that is absolutely
stable is called stable system - the label absolute is dropped.

RELATIVE STABILITY

Given that a closed-loop system is stable, the degree of stability can be

further characterize. This is referred to as relative stability.
 DETERMINATION OF STABILITY

To determine the stability of a feedback

system, one could determine the roots of
characteristic equation:

Δ(s) = 1 +G(s)H(s)

This will answer the question “Is the system stable or not?”, but we have
determined much more information than is necessary. Therefore several
methods exist to provide the required yes or no to the stability question.
 ROUTH-HURWITZ STABILITY CRITERION

The Routh-Hurwitz criterion answers the question “Is the system stable or
not?, without actually solving the characteristic equation for the roots.

Some basic results:

 Second order system:

 Third order system:

 ROUTH-HURWITZ STABILITY CRITERION
 nth order system:

So in general all coefficients of the characteristic polynomial must have the

same sign and non-zero if all the roots are in the left-hand plane.
 ROUTH-HURWITZ STABILITY CRITERION

These requirements are necessary but not sufficient. If the above

requirements are not met, it is known that the system is unstable. But, if
the requirements are met, we still must investigate the system further to
determine the stability of the system.

∆ 𝑠 = 𝑠 3 + 𝑠 2 + 2𝑠 + 8 = (𝑠 + 2)( 𝑠 2 − 𝑠 + 4)

The Routh-Hurwitz criterion is a necessary and sufficient criterion for the

stability of linear systems.
ROUTH-HURWITZ STABILITY CRITERION
COMPUTING THE 𝒃𝒏−𝟏
COMPUTING THE 𝒃𝒏−3
COMPUTING THE C𝒏−1
THE ANALYSIS IS ON THE FIRST COLUMN OF THE ROUTH-HURWITZ TABLE
THE ROUTH-HURWITZ CRITERION
THE ROUTH-HURWITZ CRITERION
 CASE 1. NO ELEMENT IN THE FIRST COLUMN IS ZERO

EXAMPLE
THE SYSTEM IS NOT STABLE
VERIFICATION
Example
CASE II. ZERO IN THE FIRST COLUMN OF THE ROUTH TABLE
CASE III. THERE IS A ZERO IN THE FIRST COLUMN, AND THE OTHER
ELEMENTS OF THE ROW CONTAINING THE ZERO ARE ALSO ZERO

Another special case occurs when an entire row of the Routh array is zero. This
condition occurs when the C.E. has roots symmetrically located about the origin of
the s-plane {i.e. when factors such as (s+σ)(s-σ) or (s+jω)(s-jω) occur}.

• If the si row is zero, we form the auxiliary polynomial U(s) from the perevious
(nonzero) row in the Routh array.
Example
Example
CASE IV. REPEATED ROOTS OF THE CHARACTERISTIC EQUATION ON THE Jω-AXIS

If the jω-axis roots of the characteristic equation are simple, the system is neither
stable nor unstable; it is instead called marginally stable, since it has an undamped
sinusoidal mode. If the jω-axis roots are repeated, the system response will be
unstable, with a form . The t sin(ωt+θ) Routh-Hurwitz criteria will not reveal this
form of instability.