Bode plot are semilog plots of the magnitude(in decibels) and phase (in degrees) of a transfer function versus

freq. Bode plots contain the same information as the nonlogarithmatic plots but they are much easier to construct. Transfer function can be written as Taking natural logarithm both sides, Thus, real part of ln H is a function of the magnitude while the imaginary part is the phase.

In a Bode magnitude plot, the gain is plotted in dB vs freq. In a bode phase plot, is plotted in degrees vs freq. Both magnitude and phase plots are made on semilog graph paper A transfer function may be written in terms of factors that have real and imaginary parts. Such representation might be

Which is obtain by dividing out poles and zeros in H().

H() has 7 different factors that can appear in various combinations in a transfer function. These are: 1) A gain K 2) A pole (j)-1 or zero (j) at the origin 3) A simple pole 1/(1+j/p1) or zero (1+j/z1) 4) A quadratic pole or zero In constructing a Bode plot, each factor is plot separately and then combined graphically. The factor can be considered one at a time and then combined additively because logarithms involved.

Constant term :for the gain K, the magnitude is 20 log10 K and the phase is 00;both are constant with freq. Thus, the magnitude and phase plots of gain are shown in figure below. If K is ve, magnitude remains 20 log10 K but the phase is 1800.

Pole/zero at the origin: For the zero(j) at the origin, magnitude is 20 log10 and the phase is 900. These are plotted below which the slope of the magnitude plot is 20dB/decade, while the phase constant with freq.

Bode plot for (j)-1 are similar except the slope of magnitude plot is -20dB/decade while the phase is -900.

In general, for (j)N, where N is an integer, magnitude plot will have a slope of 20N dB/decade, while the phase is 90N degrees.

Bode plot for a zero(j)at the origin

Simple pole/zero: For the simple zero (1+j/z1), the magnitude is and the phase is tan-1/z1. We notice that,

Showing we can approximate the magnitude as zero (a straight line with zero slope) for small value of and by a straight line with slope 20dB/decade for large value of .

The frequency = z1 where the two asymptotic lines meet is called the corner frequency or break frequency. Thus the approximate magnitude plot is shown below, where the actual plot is also shown.

Notice that the approximate plot is close to the actual plot except at the break frequency, where = z1 and the deviation is

Bode plots of zero(1+j/z1)

The phase tan-1 (/z1) can be expressed as

As a straight-line approximation, we let

As shown in figure b, along with the actual plot, the straight line plot has a slope of 450 per decade. The bode plots for the pole 1/(1+j/p1) are similar to those in figure except that the corner freq. is at =p1, the magnitude has a slope 20dB/decade, and the phase has a slope of -450 per decade.

Quadratic pole/zero: magnitude of the quadratic pole

Thus, the amplitude plot consists of two straight asymptotic lines: one with zero slope for <n and the other with slope -40dB/decade for >n, with n as the corner freq. The phase can be expressed as

Different between the actual plot and the straightline plot is due to damping factor.

To sketch Bode plots for transfer function H(): 1) Record the corner freq on semilog graph paper 2) Sketch the factors one at a time. 3) Combine additively the graphs of the factors.(drawn from left to right) 4) Changing slopes when corner freq is encountered