Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T.

Bombay, India

Lectures 16 : Stability& Design in the

Frequency Domain

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Stability limit based on sustained oscillations

+
yd Plant y
controller
- ε u

b
Consider the following simple experiments:
1) Let the setpoint be perturbed in a sinusoidal fashion with the loop open at b
If at that frequency, the controller and plant effectively add a phase lag of –180o,
then b will be signal that is out of phase with the set-point.
2) When the oscillations become steady, suppose the loop is closed at b and
the setpoint is set to zero; the –ve sign will introduce another phase change of –
180o and the wave at b will pass through the loop over and over. If the controller
and plant gain is less (greater, equal) than unity, these oscillations will die
(grow,stay constant) as the signal traverses repeatedly through the loop.

1
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Bode Stability Criteria

If the AR of the open loop transfer function is greater than 1 when the
phase lag is –180o, the closed loop system is unstable. The frequency at
which phase lag = -180o is called the cross-over frequency.

Cross over frequency

Implications
1) A first order process can never be made unstable with proportional control (why ?)
2) As the order of the process gets higher, the cross-over occurs at lower frequencies
and therefore you cannot expect aggressive (rapid) control with feedback.
3) Time delays also limit the range of acceptable controller gains for stability.

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Controller Design based on Bode Stability Criteria

Establish the stability limits using the bode plot of the open loop system:
Steps:
a) Obtain the open loop bode diagram and locate the crossover
frequency and the AR at this frequency. Denote this by (AR)c.
b) If (AR)c is less than 1, find that value of Kc, that will push Arc =1. This
is given by Kcu (AR)c=1 which means Kcu= 1/Arc.
c) Knowing Kcu and wc, one can use stability margins based tuning
methods.

Note: The Bode stability criteria is only valid for phase plots that monotonically
decrease. Generally the nyquist stability criteria is more powerful than the
Bode criteria

2
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Illustrative example: Bode Stability Criteria

Let G ( s) =
5 What is the ultimate gain for a P
( s + 1)(0.5s + 1) controller ?
Case 2: (dashed line): Integral
time=0.2
Case 3: (dash-dot line) Integral
time =1

If the crossover frequency is

not crossed, then the system
will be stable for any gain.

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Nyquist Stability Criteria

Cauchy’s principle: Mapping of s to F(s); gives the number of encirclements

Im(F)
Im(s)
F
C
Re(F)
Re(s)

Let C is any closed contour in the imaginary plane that contains Z zeros
and P poles of F within it. Then, if F(s) is evaluated along the contour C,
F will also be a closed contour that will encircle the origin N= Z-P times
in the counter-clockwise direction.

3
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Examples of encirclements
G
N=0
G N=2

Re(G) Re(G)

N=0
G

Re(G)

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

How do we use the criteria ?

Consider the contour C to be the entire RHP and evaluate (1+KG(s)) on the contour.

Im(s)
Im(1+KG)
C
1+KG

Re(s) Re(1+KG)

Now, by Cauchy’s principle, the number of RHP zeros of F(s)=1+KG(s) must be equal
to the number of poles of F(s)=1+KG(s) + number of clockwise encirclements of 1+KG
around the origin.
Now poles of F(s) are the same as the open loop poles (i.e. that of G(s)). If we want
the system to be stable, there must be no zeros of 1+KG(s) in the RHP. Therefore, for
stability, K must be chosen so that there must be N=-P encirclements of 1+KG around
the origin.

4
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

How do we use the criteria ?

Alternately, we can plot KG(s) instead of 1+KG(s) and look at encirclements around the
point (-1,0) and therefore if the process has 1 unstable pole, then K must be chosen
such that there is 1 counterclockwise encirclement around the point (–1,0).
A further step could be to look for (Z) counterclockwise encirclements around the point
(-1/K,0) and decide on the value of K directly from the graph.

Illustrative example (from Kuo, p 578)

G ( s) =
10 with proportional control. Find the range on K for
s 3 + 3s 2 + 10 stability

The open loop system contains two poles that are in the RHP. Now do a nyquist plot
of G and look for regions having N=-2 (i.e. 2 counterclockwise encirclements around
the point (-1/K,0).

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Illustrative example (contd)

Enlarged view around the

origin

Stable region is –1/1< -1/K <0

and therefore K > 1 for stability.

5
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Illustrative example from text

6
Consider G(s) = with PID control. Find the maximum
(2s + 1)(4 s + 1)(6s + 1)
possible gain Kc
The text discusses the specific case when 1/τI =4/3 and τD=10. Let us analyze the root
locus, bode and nyquist stability predictions.

The root locus predicts conditional

stability, i.e. the system would be unstable
for 0.051 < Kc < 0.674 but is stable
otherwise.

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Illustrative example from text

Nyquist plot shows one clockwise

Bode plot shows multiple crossovers. encirclement. So all values of –1/k
So difficult to interpret easily. Look at within that would be unstable, i.e. for –
Nyquist plots. 1/0.051 > -1/K > 1/0.674, the system is
unstable