Module 003 Frequency Response Transfer Function

Feedback and Control Systems
1
Frequency Response Transfer Function
Module 003 Frequency Response Transfer

Function
At the end of this module you are expected to:

1. Determine the stability and robustness of closed loop systems
2. Investigate how sinusoidal signals of different frequencies propagate
around the feedback loop
3. Understand the Nyquist stability theorem that provides a way to analyze
stability
The Loop Transfer Function

It is quite difficult to determine the stability of systems which are interconnected by feedback
since each system affects the other. However, using the loop analysis which is a mathematical
framework of transfer function provides a way to analyze such system.
The basic idea of loop analysis is to trace the propagation of the sinusoidal signal in the
feedback loop and determine the stability by observing if the propagated signal either grows
or decays. Since the transmission of sinusoidal signals through a linear dynamical system is
characterized by the frequency response of the system, this method is easier. The primary
result is the Nyquist stability theorem which provides a perception on the stability of a
system. The use of Nyquist criterion is not only to determine if the system is stable or not but
it is also a measure of the degree of stability through the definition of stability margins. It
also indicates how an unstable system should be changed to make it stable.
r e u y B A
Σ C(s) P(s
L(s)
)
-1
-1
a b
Figure 1. The Loop Transfer Function
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Shown in Figure 1are the method to determine the stability of the system. Take Figure 1a as
the system to determine its stability. By traditional method, the closed loop characteristic
polynomial is determined if all its roots are in the left half plane. If the process and controller
have rational transfer functions P(s) = np(s)/dp(s) and C(s) = nc(s)/dc(s) then the closed loop
system ha s a transfer function
𝑃𝐶 𝑛𝑝 (𝑠)𝑛𝑐 (𝑠)
𝐺𝑦𝑟 (𝑠) = =
1+𝑃𝐶 𝑑𝑝 (𝑠)𝑑𝑐 (𝑠)+𝑛𝑝 (𝑠)𝑛𝑐 (𝑠)
To determine stability, the roots of the characteristic polynomial are computed and
determine if they each have negative real part. This method is direct but it cannot be a design
guide and does not give how the controller be modified to stabilize a system.
Nyquist’s idea was to determine conditions under which oscillations can occur in a feedback
loop. The loop transfer function L(s) = P(s)C(s), the transfer function obtained by breaking
the feedback loop is introduced as shown in Figure 1b. The loop transfer function is just the
transfer function from the input in position A to the output at position B.
The conditions for having a periodic oscillation in the loop are first determined. It is assumed
that a sinusoid of frequency ω0 is injected at point A. In steady state, the signal at point B will
also be a sinusoid with the frequency ω0. An oscillation can be maintained if the signal at B
has the same amplitude and phase as the injected signal, because A can then be connected to
B. After the signals around the loop were traced, the signals at A and B were found to be
identical if
Eq. 1. L(iω0) = -1
which provides a condition to maintain oscillation. The important idea of Nyquist stability
criterion is to understand when this can happen in a general setting.
An example is to determine the loop transfer function for operational amplifier as shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 2. Loop Transfer Function for an Op Amp
Source: (275)
Z1 and Z2 are the transfer functions from voltage to current of the feedback elements. There
is feedback because the voltage v2 is related to the voltage v through a transfer function –G
describing the op amp dynamics and the voltage v is related to the voltage v 2 through the
transfer function Z1/(Z1 + Z2). The loop transfer function is then
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𝐺𝑍1
𝐿= 𝑍1 +𝑍2
The current I is assumed to be zero, the current through the elements Z 1 and Z2 is the same
which implies
𝑣1 −𝑣 𝑣−𝑣2
=
𝑍1 𝑍2
The result of solving for v is

𝑍1 𝑣1 +𝑍1 𝑣2 𝑍2 𝑣1 −𝑍1 𝐺𝑣 𝑍1
𝑣= = = 𝐿𝑣1 − 𝐿𝑣
𝑍1 +𝑍2 𝑍1 +𝑍2 𝑍2
Since v2 = -Gv the input-output relation for the current becomes

𝑍 𝐿
𝐺𝑣2𝑣1 = 𝑍2 1+𝐿
1
The block diagram is shown in Figure 2b. It follows from Equation 1 that the condition for
oscillation of the op amp circuit is
𝑍1 (𝑖𝜔)𝐺(𝑖𝜔)
𝐿(𝑖𝜔) = = −1
𝑍1 (𝑖𝜔)+𝑍2 (𝑖𝜔)
One of the concepts in Nyquist approach to stability analysis is that it allows the study of the
stability of the feedback system by looking at the properties of the loop transfer function.
The advantage of this is it is easy to see how the controller should be chosen to obtain the
desired transfer function. An example is if the gain of the controller is changed, the loop
transfer function will be balanced accordingly. The simple way to stabilize an unstable
system is to reduce the gain so that the -1 point is avoided. Another way is to introduce a
controller with the property that it bends the loop transfer function away from the critical
point.
The Nyquist Criterion

The Nyquist criterion is used for determining the stability of a feedback system through
analysis of the loop transfer function. This analysis will employ the use of the graphical
tool, the Nyquist plot.
The Nyquist Plot
The dynamics of a linear system can be represented by its frequency response and
graphically illustrated by the Bode plot. While the stability of the system can be
studied by using a representation of the frequency response called the Nyquist plot.
The Nyquist plot of the loop transfer function L(s) is formed by tracing s∈ℂ around
the Nyquist “D contour”, consisting of the imaginary axis. The contour, denoted as Γ
∈ℂ, is as shown in Figure 3a. The image of L(s) when s traverses Γ gives a closed curve
in the complex plane and is referred to as the Nyquist plot for L(s), as illustrated in
Figure 3b. it can be noted that if the transfer function L(s) goes to zero as s gets large,
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then the portion of the contour “at infinity” maps to the origin. Also, the portion of the
plot corresponding to ω < 0 is the mirror image of the portion with ω>0.
Figure 3. The Nyquist Contour and the Nyquist Plot
Source: Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers(276), by K.J. Anstrom and R.M.
Murray, 2014, Sta. Barbara, California, https://www.cds.caltech.edu/~murray/amwiki. Retrieved
December, 2018.
There is restraint with the Nyquist plot when the loop transfer function has
poles on the imaginary axis because the gain is infinite at the poles. To solve
this problem, the contour Γ is modified to include small deviations that avoid
any poles on the imaginary axis as in Figure 3a (assuming a pole of L(s) at the
origin). The deviation consists of a small semicircle to the right of the
imaginary axis pole location.
The condition for the oscillation as given in Equation 1 implies that the Nyquist
plot of the loop transfer function goes through the point L = -1, which is called
the critical point. Assume ωc represents a frequency at which ∠L(iωc) = 1800,
which corresponds to the Nyquist curve crossing the negative real axis. It is
equitable that the system is stable if |L(iωc)| < 1, which means that the critical
point, -1 is on the left hand side of the Nyquist curve as in Figure 3b. This
means that the signal at point B will have a similar amplitude than the injected
signal.
Theorem 1. (Simplified Nyquist criterion). Let L(s) be the loop transfer function
for a negative feedback system and assume that L has no poles in the closed right
half plane (Res ≥0), except for single poles on the imaginary axis. Then the closed
loop system is stable if and only if the closed contour given by Ω = {L(iω) : - ∞ <
ω <∞} ⊂ ℂ has no net encirclements of s = -1.
In the theory of complex functions, it is customary to encircle the Nyquist
contour in the counter clockwise direction, which means that the imaginary
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axis is traversed in the direction from ∞ to -∞. The number of encirclements

is called the winding number.
The next example is the third order system which is expressed as
1
𝐿(𝑠) = (𝑠+𝑎)3
To compute the Nyquist plot, the points on the imaginary axis s = iω is

evaluated to give
1 (𝑎−𝑖𝜔)3 𝑎3 −3𝑎𝜔2 𝜔2 −3𝑎2 𝜔
𝐿(𝑖𝜔) = = (𝑎2+𝜔2 )3 = (𝑎2+𝜔2 )3 + 𝑖 (𝑎2+𝜔2 )3
(𝑖𝜔+𝑎)3
The plot is as shown in Figure 4 with the points corresponding to ω > 0 drawn
as solid line and ω < 0 as a dashed line. It can be noted that these curves are
mirror images of each other.
Figure 4. The Nyquist Plot for a Third Order Transfer Function
December, 2018.
For the completion of the Nyquist plot, L(s) is computed for s on the outer arc
of the Nyquist D contour. This arc has the form 𝑠 = 𝑅𝑒 𝑗𝜃 for R→∞ and gives
1
𝐿(𝑅𝑒 𝑗𝜃 ) = 3 → 0 𝑎𝑠 𝑅 → ∞
(𝑅𝑒 𝑗𝜃 +𝑎)
Therefore the outer arc of the D contour maps to the origin on the Nyquist plot.
Another method of computing the Nyquist plot is to determine the plot from
the frequency response (Bode plot), which gives the Nyquist curve for s = iω,
ω = 0. G(iω) is first plotted from ω = 0 to ω = ∞, which is read off from the
magnitude and phase of the transfer function. Then 𝐺(𝑅𝑒 𝑗𝜃 ) is plotted with θ
∈ [0,π/2] and R →∞, which always maps to zero. The remaining parts of the
plot can be determined by taking the mirror image of the curve. The plot can
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be labeled with arrows corresponding to a counter-clockwise traversal around

the D contour.
Third order system with pole at the origin has a transfer function
𝑘
𝐿(𝑠) = 𝑠(𝑠+1)2
Where the gain has the minimal value k = 1. The Bode plot is shown in Figure
5a. The system has a single pole at s = 1 and a double pole at s = -1. The gain
curve of the Bode plot then has the slope -1 for low frequencies and at the
double pole s = 1 the slope changes to -3. For small s the result is L≈k/s which
means that the low frequency asymptote intersects the unit gain line at ω = k.
The phase curve starts at -900 for low frequencies, it is -1800 at the break point
ω =1 and it is -2700 at high frequencies.
After getting the Bode plot, the Nyquist plot is sketched as shown in Figure 5b.
It starts with a phase of -900 for low frequencies, intersects the negative real
axis at the breakpoint ω = 1 where L(i) = 0.5 and goes on to zero along the
imaginary axis for high frequencies. The small half circle of the Γ contour at
the origin is mapped on a large circle enclosing the right half plane. The
Nyquist curve does not encircle the critical point and it follows from the
simplified Nyquist theorem that the closed loop is stable. Since L(i) = -k/2 the
system is found to become unstable if the gain is increased to k = 2 or beyond.
Figure 5. Sketch of Nyquist and Bode Plot
December, 2018.
The Nyquist criterion does not require that |L(iω)| < 1 for all ω corresponding
to a crossing of the negative real axis. It rather says that the number of
encirclements must be zero which allows the possibility that the Nyquist curve
could cross the negative real axis and cross back at magnitudes greater than 1.
One advantage of Nyquist criterion is that it tells how a system is influenced
by changes of the controller parameters. An example is that it is easy to
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visualize what happens when the gain is changed since this scales the Nyquist
curve.
Another example is the congestion control system in an Internet. Assuming
there are N identical sources and a disturbance d representing an external data
source as shown in Figure 6a. Time delay between the router and the senders
are included, representing the time delays between the sender and receiver.
To analyze the stability of the system, the transfer functions used are
𝑓
𝑁𝑤𝑒 𝑒 −𝜏 𝑠 𝑁
𝐺𝑏𝑤 (𝑠) = 𝑓 , 𝐺𝑤𝑞 (𝑠) = 𝑞𝑒 (𝜏𝑒 𝑠+𝑞𝑒 𝑤𝑒 )
, 𝐺𝑝𝑏 (𝑠) = 𝜌
𝜏𝑒 𝑠+𝑒 𝜏 𝑠
Where (we, be) is the equilibrium point for the system, N is the number of
sources, τe is the steady state round trip time and τf is the forward propagation
time.
Figure 6. Internet Congestion Control
December, 2018.
The loop transfer function is

𝑁 1 𝑓
𝐿(𝑠) = 𝜌. 𝑓 .𝑞 (𝜏 )
𝑒 −𝜏 𝑠
𝜏𝑒 𝑠+𝑒 −𝜏 𝑠 𝑒 𝑒 𝑠+𝑞 𝑤
𝑒 𝑒
2𝑁 2𝑁3 𝑏𝑒 𝜏𝑒 𝑐
It is known that 𝑞𝑒 ≈ 𝑤 2 = (𝜏 2 and 𝑤𝑒 = = , it shows that
𝑒 𝑒 𝑐) 𝑁 𝑁
𝑁 𝑐 3 𝜏3
𝑒 −𝜏𝑒 𝑠
𝐿(𝑠) = 𝜌. 𝑓 . 2𝑁3 (𝑐𝜏2 𝑠+2𝑁 2) 𝑒
𝜏𝑒 𝑠+𝑒 𝜏 𝑠 𝑒
The exponential term representing the time delay gives significant phase
above ω = 1/τ and the gain at the crossover frequency will determine stability.
To check stability it is required that the gain is sufficiently small at crossover.
If it is assumed that the pole due to the queue dynamics is sufficiently fast that
the TCP dynamics are dominant, the gain at the crossover frequency ω is given
by
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𝑐 3 𝜏3 𝜌𝑐 2 𝜏𝑒
|𝐿(𝑖𝜔𝑐 )| = 𝜌. 𝑁. 3 𝑒2 =
2𝑁 𝑐𝜏 𝜔 𝑒 𝑐 2𝑁𝜔𝑐
Using the Nyquist criterion, the closed loop system will be unstable if this
quantity is greater than 1. In particular, for a fixed time delay, the system will
become unstable as the link capacity c is increased. This means that the TCP
protocol may not be scalable to high capacity networks.
Conditional Stability
There are instances that unstable systems can be stabilized by simply
reducing the loop gains. However, there are also instances that systems
cannot be stabilized by increasing the gain. This is common in the
design of feedback amplifiers calling this as conditional stability. An
example is a feedback system with the loop transfer function as
3(𝑠+1)2
𝐿(𝑠) = 𝑠(𝑠+6)2
The Nyquist plot of the loop transfer function is as shown in Figure 7.

It can be noted that the Nyquist curve intersects the negative real axis
twice. The first intersection is at L = -12 for ω=2 and the second at L = -
4.5 for ω=3. Introducing a sinusoid with frequency 2 rad/s and
amplitude 1 at A gives an oscillation at B that is in phase with the input
and has amplitude 12. This seems that closing the loop will result a
stable system. But it follows from the Nyquist stability criterion that the
system is stable because there are no encirclements of the critical point.
Figure 7. The Nyquist Curve for Conditional Stability
December, 2018.
General Nyquist Criterion

Theorem 1 requires that L(s) has no poles in the closed right half plane.
However in some situations this is not the case and a more general
result is required.
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Theorem 2. (Nyquist’s stability theorem). Consider a closed loop with

the loop transfer function L(s), that has P poles in the region enclosed by
the Nyquist contour. Let wn be the net number of counter-clockwise
encirclements of -1 by L(s) when s encircles the Nyquist contour Γ in the
counter-clockwise direction. The closed loop system then has wn + P poles
in the right half plane.
The full Nyquist criterion states that if L(s) has P poles in the right half
plane, then the Nyquist curve for L(s) should have P clockwise
encirclements of -1. Particularly, this requires that |L(iωc)| > 1 for some
ωc corresponding to a crossing of the negative real axis. The Nyquist
contour has to be traversed counter-clockwise meaning that ω moves
from ∞ to -∞ and ωn is positive if the Nyquist curve turns counter-
clockwise.
As in the case of the simplified Nyquist criterion, small semicircles of
radius r were used to avoid any poles on the imaginary axis. If it is
assumed that r → 0, Theorem 2 can be used to justify stability. It is
noted that the image of the small semicircles generates a section of the
Nyquist curve whose magnitude approaches infinity that requires care
in computing the winding number.
Stability Margins
In reality, it is not enough that the system is stable. There must also be margins of stability
that describe how stable the system is and its strengths to agitations. The most common way
to show this is to use gain and phase margins from the Nyquist’s stability criterion. This is
because it is easy to plot the loop transfer function L(s). An increase of controller gain
expands the Nyquist plot radially and an increase in phase of the controller twists the
Nyquist plot clockwise. Thence from the Nyquist plot, it can be pointed out the amount of
gain or phase that can be added without causing the system to be unstable.
Assume that ωpc as the phase crossover frequency, the smallest frequency where the phase
of the loop transfer function L(s) is -1800. The gain margin is defined as
1
Eq. 2 𝑔𝑚 =
|𝐿(𝑖𝜔𝑝𝑐 )|
This indicate how much the controller gain can be increased before reaching the stability
limit.
Also assume that ωgc is the gain crossover frequency, the lowest frequency where the loop
transfer function L(s) has unit magnitude. The phase margin is
Eq. 3 ∅𝑚 = 𝜋 + arg 𝐿(𝑖𝜔𝑔𝑐 )
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The amount of phase lag required to reach the stability limit. These margins have simple
geometric interpretations in the Nyquist diagram of the loop transfer function as shown in
Figure 8a.
Figure 8. Stability Margins
December, 2018.
There is a disadvantage with gain and phase margins, it is necessary to give both of them to
guarantee that the Nyquist curve is not close to the critical point. An alternative method is to
express margins by a single number, the stability margin, sm, which is the shortest distance
from the Nyquist curve to the critical point.
Gain and phase margins can be determined from the Bode plot of the loop transfer function.
To determine the gain margin, the phase crossover frequency ω pc where the phase is -1800
is solved. The gain margin is the inverse of the gain at that frequency. On the other hand, to
find phase margin, the gain crossover frequency ωgc, where the gain of the loop transfer
function is 1 is determined. The phase margin is the phase of the loop transfer function at
that frequency plus 1800. Figure 8b shows how the margins are determined in the Bode plot
of the loop transfer function.
Bode’s Relations and Minimum Phase Systems

Analysis shows that there is a relation between the gain curve and the phase curve. Examples
of which are; the Bode plots for the integrator and differentiator. For the differentiator, the
slope is +1 and the phase is constant π/2 radians while for the integrator, the slope is -1 and
the phase is –π/2 radians. For the first order system G(s) = s + a, the amplitude curve has a
slope of 0 for low frequencies and a slope of +1 for high frequencies and the phase is 0 for
low frequencies and π/2 for high frequencies.
According on the investigation of Bode on the relations between the curves for systems with
no poles and zeros in the right half plane, the phase was uniquely given by the shape of the
gain curve and vice versa as
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𝜋 ∞ 𝑑𝑙𝑜𝑔|𝐺(𝑖𝜔)| 𝜋 𝑑𝑙𝑜𝑔|𝐺(𝑖𝜔)|
Eq. 4 arg 𝐺(𝑖𝜔0 ) = ∫ 𝑓(𝜔) 𝑑𝑙𝑜𝑔𝜔 ≈
2 0 𝑑𝑙𝑜𝑔𝜔 2 𝑑𝑙𝑜𝑔𝜔
Where f is the weighting kernel

2 𝜔+𝜔
𝑓(𝜔) = 𝑙𝑜𝑔 |𝜔−𝜔0|
𝜋2 0
The phase curve is then a weighted average of the derivative of the gain curve. If the gain
curve has constant slope n the phase curve has the constant value π/2.
Equation 4, Bode’s relation, is used for systems with no poles and zeros at the right half plane.
Such systems are called minimum phase system since systems with poles and zeros in the
right half plane have larger phase lag. Minimum phase systems are easier to control than
systems with larger phase lag.
The transfer function of a time delay of Td units is 𝐺(𝑠) = 𝑒 𝑠𝑇𝑑 . This transfer function then
has unit gain, |G(iω)| = 1, and the phase is arg G(iω) = -ωTd. The corresponding minimum
phase system with unit gain has the transfer function G(s) – 1. The time delay then has an
additional phase lag of ωTd. It can be noted that the phase lag increases linearly with
frequency as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9. Bode Plots of Systems that are not Minimum Phase
December, 2018.
Figure 9b shows a system with the transfer function G(s) = (a-s)(a+s) with a>0, which has a
zero s = a in the right half plane. The transfer function has unit gain, |G(iω)| = 1, and the phase
is arg G(iω) = 2 arctan (ω/a). the corresponding minimum phase system with a unit gain has
the transfer function G(s) = 1. While Figure 9c shows the analysis of the transfer function G(s)
= (s + a)/(s – a) with a > 0, which has a pole in the right half plane, shows that its phase is arg
G(iω) = -2 arctan (a + ω).
Having poles and zeros in the right half plane introduces severe limitations on the quality of
performance. This can be avoided by redesigning the system whenever possible. While poles
are intrinsic properties of the system and do not depend on sensors and actuators, the zeros
depend on how the inputs and outputs of the system are coupled to the states. Thus, zeros
can be changed by moving sensors and actuators or by introducing new sensors and
actuators. However, non-minimum phase systems are common in practice.
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The Notions of Gain and Phase

The use of frequency domain analysis is to trace the behavior of sinusoidal signals through a
system. The concepts of gain and phase represented by the transfer function are instinctive
since they describe the amplitude and phase relations between input and output.
System Gain
Consider a static linear system y = Au, where A is a matrix whose elements are
complex numbers. Let the inputs and outputs be vector whose elements are complex
numbers and use the Euclidean norm
Eq. 5 ‖𝑢‖ = √∑|𝑢𝑡 |2
The norm of the output is
‖𝑦‖2 = 𝑢 ∗ 𝐴 ∗ 𝐴𝑢
Where * means the complex conjugate transpose. The matrix A*A is symmetric and
positive semidefinite and the right hand side is a quadratic form. The eigenvalues of
the of the matrix A*A are all real and thus
‖𝑦‖2 ≤ 𝜆𝑚𝑎𝑥 (𝐴 ∗ 𝐴)‖𝑢‖2
The gain of the system can be defined as the maximum ratio of the output to the
input over all possible inputs.
‖𝑦‖
𝛾 = max ‖𝑢‖ = √𝜆𝑚𝑎𝑥 (𝐴 ∗ 𝐴)
𝑢
The eigenvalues of the matrix A*A are called singular values of the matrix A and the
largest singular value is denoted 𝜎̅ (A).
To generalize this case of an input/output dynamical system, the inputs and outputs
should be thought of not as vectors of real numbers but the vectors of signals.
Consider the case of scalar signals and the signal space L2 as square integrable
functions with the norm
∞
‖𝑢‖2 = √∫0 |𝑢|2 (𝜏)𝑑𝜏
This definition can be generalized to vector signals by replacing the absolute value
with the vector norm in Equation 5. The gain of the system can be defined by taking
inputs 𝑢 ∈ 𝐿2 and producing outputs 𝑦 ∈ 𝐿2 as
‖𝑦‖
Eq. 6 𝛾 = sup ‖𝑢‖
𝑢=𝐿2
Where sup is the supremum, the smallest number that is larger than its argument.
Supremum is used because the maximum may not be defined for 𝑢 ∈ 𝐿2 . This
definition of the system gain is general and can be used for some classes of nonlinear
systems. The norm described in Equation 6 has good properties in the case of linear
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system. Given a stable linear system with transfer function G(s), it can be shown that
the norm of the system is given by
𝛾 = 𝑠𝑢𝑝|𝐺(𝑖𝜔)| = ‖𝐺‖∞
𝜔
Conversely, the gain of the system corresponds to the peak value of the frequency
response. This relates to the idea that an input produces largest output when the class
of system is at resonant frequency. ||G||∞ is called the infinity norm of the transfer
function G(s).
This idea can be generalized to the multi-input, multi-output case. For a linear
multivariable system with real rational transfer function matrix G(s), the gain is
defined as
Eq. 7 𝛾 = ‖𝐺‖∞ = sup 𝜎̅(𝐺(𝑖𝜔))
𝜔
Small Gain and Passivity

From the Nyquist’s theorem for linear system, the closed loop is stable if the gain of
the loop transfer function is less than one for all the frequencies. Using the concept of
the system gain defined in Equation 6, this result can be extended to a larger systems.
Theorem 3 (Small gain theorem). Consider the closed loop system where H1 and H2 are
stable systems and the signal spaces are properly defined. Let the gains of the systems
H1 and H2 be ϒ1 and ϒ2. Then the closed loop system is input/output stable if ϒ1ϒ2 < 1,
and the gain of the closed loop system is
𝛾1
𝛾=
1−𝛾1 𝛾2
If systems H1 and H2 are linear it follows from the Nyquist stability theorem that the
closed loop is stable, because if 𝛾1 𝛾2 < 1 the Nyquist curve is always inside the unit
circle. Therefore, the small gain theorem can be said to be an extension of the Nyquist
stability theorem.
Aside from the fact that the small gain theorem can be utilized also for nonlinear
input/output systems, its main limitation is that it does not consider the phasing of
signals around the loop, so it can be very conservative. To define the phase scalar
product is needed thus square integrable functions can be defined as
∞
(𝑢, 𝑦) = ∫0 𝑢(𝜏)𝑦(𝜏)𝑑𝜏
The phase ø between two signals can then now be defined as
(𝑥, 𝑦) = ‖𝑢‖‖𝑦‖ cos ∅
Passive systems are those systems where the phase between inputs and outputs is
900 or less for all inputs. It follows then from the Nyquist stability theorem that the
closed loop linear system is stable if the phase of the loop transfer function is between
Course Module
14
–π and π. The result is also true for nonlinear systems and this theorem is called the
passivity theorem which is closely related to the small gain theorem.
Describing Functions
A generalization of Nyquist’s stability criterion can be obtained based on describing
function for special nonlinear system as illustrated in Figure 10 which consists of a
feedback connection of a linear system and a static nonlinearity.
Figure 10. Illustration of Describing Function Analysis
December, 2018.
By following the approach of the Nyquist stability condition the conditions for
maintaining an oscillation in the system can be analyzed. If the linear subsystem has
low pass character, its output is approximately sinusoidal even if its input is highly
irregular. The condition for oscillation can then be found by exploring the
propagation of a sinusoid that corresponds to the first harmonic.
It is first analyzed how a sinusoidal signal propagates through a static nonlinear
system particularly how the first harmonic of the output of the nonlinearity is related
to its input. Let F represents the nonlinear function, F(e-iωt) is expanded in terms of
harmonics as
𝐹(𝑎𝑒 −𝜔𝑡 ) = ∑∞
𝑛=0 𝑀𝑛 (𝑎)𝑒
𝑖𝑛𝜔𝑡−∅𝑛 (𝑎)
Where Mn(a) and øn(a) represent the gain and phase of the nth harmonic which
depend on the input amplitude since the function F is nonlinear. Describing function
is defined to be the complex gain of the first harmonic.
Eq. 8 𝐿(𝑖𝜔)𝑁(𝑎) = −1
This equation means that if a sinusoid is injected at A in Figure 10, the same signal
will appear at B and an oscillation can be maintained by connecting the points.
Equation 8 gives two conditions to find the frequency ω of the oscillation and its
amplitude a: the plane must be 1800 and the magnitude must be unity. To solve the
equation it is advised to plot L(iω) and -1/N(a) on the same diagram as shown in
Figure 10b. The graph is the same as the Nyquist plot where the critical point -1 is
replaced by the curve -1/N(a) and a ranges from 0 to ∞.
Course Module
15
References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals
1. Gary B. Hughes; 2017; Frequency-Domain Analysis with DFT’s; New Jersey, USA; SPIE
Press Book
2. Yu-Ping Tian; Frequency-Domain Analysis and Design of Distributed Control Systems;
IEEE Journal on Electronic Circuits and Systems; ; 978047828205; 2017
Online Supplementary Reading Materials
1. Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers;
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~murray/amwiki/index.php/Second_Edition;
December, 2018
Online Instructional Videos
1. A discussion on Frequency Domain Analysis Control System Parts 1 and 2;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyDR25WhZ44; January, 2019
2. Discussion on Nyquist Diagram Drawing and Stability Analysis;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB24eEPz28w; January, 2019
3. Discussion on Nyquist Stability Criterion;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mihkXZZbfDY; December, 2018
Course Module

Module 003 Frequency Response Transfer Function

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Module 003 Frequency Response Transfer Function

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Feedback and Control Systems

Module 003 Frequency Response Transfer

At the end of this module you are expected to:

The Loop Transfer Function

Figure 2. Loop Transfer Function for an Op Amp

The result of solving for v is

Since v2 = -Gv the input-output relation for the current becomes

The Nyquist Criterion

Figure 3. The Nyquist Contour and the Nyquist Plot

axis is traversed in the direction from ∞ to -∞. The number of encirclements

To compute the Nyquist plot, the points on the imaginary axis s = iω is

Figure 4. The Nyquist Plot for a Third Order Transfer Function

be labeled with arrows corresponding to a counter-clockwise traversal around

Figure 5. Sketch of Nyquist and Bode Plot

Figure 6. Internet Congestion Control

The loop transfer function is

The Nyquist plot of the loop transfer function is as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. The Nyquist Curve for Conditional Stability

General Nyquist Criterion

Theorem 2. (Nyquist’s stability theorem). Consider a closed loop with

Figure 8. Stability Margins

Bode’s Relations and Minimum Phase Systems

Where f is the weighting kernel

Figure 9. Bode Plots of Systems that are not Minimum Phase

The Notions of Gain and Phase

Small Gain and Passivity

Figure 10. Illustration of Describing Function Analysis

References and Supplementary Materials

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