DMT 354

INTRODUCTION TO CONTROL
SYSTEM

CHAPTER 5
System Stability
Introduction

■ Introduction
■ System Stability
■ Routh-Hurwitz Criterion
■ Construction of Routh Table
■ Determining System Stability
■ Special Case 1: Zero Only in First Column
■ Special Case 2: Zero for Entire Row
■ Stability Via Routh-Hurwitz
 Introduction
■ Total response of a system is the sum of forced and natural
response.

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
or steady state 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.
 Absolute & Relative Stability
■ 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 right-hand-plane (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.
System Stability
■ Stable systems have closed-loop transfer functions with
poles only in the left half-plane.
 System Stability
■ 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.
 System Stability
■ Marginally stable systems have closed-loop transfer
functions with only imaginary axis poles of multiplicity 1
and poles in the left half-plane.
 Determining System Stability
■ 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.
■ Step:
i. If the system is operating in closed-loop, first find output, C(s) of 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 2nd-order, 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 Criterion
■ 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.
■ This method will show number of poles in RHP, LHP & jω-
axis.
 Routh-Hurwitz Criterion
■ 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.
 Routh-Hurwitz Criterion
■ For the sufficient condition, we must form a Routh-array.
Construction of Routh Table

Equivalent closed-loop transfer function

Initial layout for Routh table

Construction of Routh Table

Completed Routh table

 Construction of Routh Table
■ Example 1: How many roots exist on the right-half plane?
 Construction of Routh Table

Solution: 2 changes in 1st column. 2 poles in RHP. System Unstable

 Zero Only in First Column
■ If the first element of a row is zero, division by zero would
be required to form the next row.
■ To avoid this, an epsilon, , is assigned to replace the zero
in the first column.
■ The value of epsilon,  is allow to approach zero from
either positive or negative side.
 Zero Only in First Column
■ Example 2: Consider the following closed-loop transfer
function T(s).
10
T ( s) 
s 5  2 s 4  3s 3  6 s 2  5 s  3
 Zero Only in First Column
■ To determine the system stability, sign changes were
observed after substituting  with a very small positive
number or alternatively a very small negative number.

2 changes sign
2 poles at RHP
System Unstable
 Zero for Entire Row
■ An entire row of zeros will appear in the Routh table
when a purely even or purely odd polynomial is a factor
of the original polynomial.
■ Example: s4 + 5s2 + 7 has an even powers of s.
■ Even polynomials have roots that are symmetrical about
the origin.
i. Roots are symmetrical & real
ii. Roots are symmetrical & imaginary
iii. Roots are quadrantal
Zero for Entire Row
 Zero for Entire Row
■ Example 3: 10
T (s)  5
s  7 s 4  6 s 3  42s 2  8s  56

1 6 8
7 1 42 6 56 8
01 03 0
3 8 0
0

8
Zero for Entire Row
Aux Equation is getting
from the row above zero
row
Zero for Entire Row
 Stability Via Routh-Hurwitz
■ Example 4: Find the range of gain K for the system below
that will cause the system to be stable, unstable and
marginally stable, Assume K > 0.

■ Closed-loop transfer function:

K
T ( s)  3
s  18s 2  77s  K
 Stability Via Routh-Hurwitz
■ Forming the Routh table:
 Stability Via Routh-Hurwitz
■ Solution:
■ If K > 1386 :
All the terms in 1st column will be positive and since there
are no sign changes, the system will have 3 poles in the left-
half plane and are stable.

■ If K < 1386 :
The s1 in the first column is negative. There are 2 sign
changes, indicating that the system has two right-half-plane
poles and one left-half plane pole, which make the system
unstable.

■ If K = 1386:
The entire row of zeros, which signify the existence of jω
poles. By using the Auxillary Eq, which can determine
whether the system is critically stable or unstable.
Further Reading
i. Nise, N.S. (2008). Control System Engineering
(5th Ed), John Wiley & Sons. Chapter 6
ii. Dorf, R.C., Bishop R.H. (2001). Modern Control
Systems (9th Ed), Prentice Hall. Chapter 6.