EE313 Linear Systems and Signals

Fall 2010

Stability
Prof. Brian L. Evans
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Initial conversion of content to PowerPoint
by Dr. Wade C. Schwartzkopf

Stability
Many possible
definitions
Two key issues for
practical systems

For zero-input response

System response to zero

input: internal stability
System response to nonzero but finite amplitude
(bounded) input:
bounded input bounded
output (BIBO) stability

If a system remains in a
particular state (or condition)
indefinitely, then state is an
equilibrium state of system
Systems output due to nonzero
initial conditions should
approach 0 as t
Systems output generated by
initial conditions is made up
of characteristic modes

8-2

Stability
Three cases for zero-input response
A system is stable if and only if all characteristic modes
go to 0 as t
A system is unstable if and only if at least one of the
characteristic modes grows without bound as t
A system is marginally stable if and only if the zero-input
response remains bounded (e.g. oscillates between
lower and upper bounds) as t

8-3

Characteristic Modes
Distinct characteristic roots 1, 2, , n
n

y0 t c j e

jt

j 1

lim e t e j t
t

if Re 0
if Re 0

Im{}

Right-hand
plane (RHP)

if Re 0

Where = + j
in Cartesian form
Units of are in
radians/second

Stable
Left-hand
plane (LHP)

Unstable

Re{}

Marginally
Stable
8-4

Characteristic Modes
Repeated roots
r
y0 t ci t i 1 e t
i 1

For r repeated roots of

value .
0

if Re 0

lim t e if Re 0
t

if Re 0
k t

For positive k

Decaying exponential
decays faster than
tk increases for any
value of k
One can see this by using
the Taylor Series
approximation for et
about t = 0:
1
1
1 t 2t 2 3t 3 ...
2
6

8-5

Stability Conditions
An LTIC system is asymptotically stable if and
only if all characteristic roots are in LHP. The
roots may be simple (not repeated) or repeated.
An LTIC system is unstable if and only if either
one or both of the following conditions exist:
(i) at least one root is in the right-hand plane (RHP)
(ii) there are repeated roots on the imaginary axis.

An LTIC system is marginally stable if and

only if there are no roots in the RHP, and there
are no repeated roots on imaginary axis
8-6

Response to Bounded Inputs

Stable system: a bounded input (in amplitude)
should give a bounded response (in amplitude)
Test for linear-time-invariant (LTI) systems
y t

h t f t

y t

f(t)

h f t d
h f t d h f t d

If f (t ) is bounded, i.e. f t C t , then

f t C , and y t C h d

h(t)

y(t)

h d

Bounded-Input Bounded-Output (BIBO) stable

8-7

Impact of Characteristic Modes

Zero-input response consists of the systems
characteristic modes
Stable system characteristic modes decay
exponentially and eventually vanish
If input has the form of a characteristic mode,
then the system will respond strongly
If input is very different from the characteristic
modes, then the response will be weak
8-8

Impact of Characteristic Modes

Example: First-order system with characteristic
mode e t
y t

h t f t

Ae t u t e t u t
A

e t e t u t

Three cases
t e t u t

resonance

y t large amplitude strong response

small amplitude weak response

8-9

System Time Constant

When an input is applied to a system, a certain
amount of time elapses before the system fully
responds to that input
Time lag or response time is the system time constant
No single mathematical definition for all cases

Special case: RC filter

Time constant is = RC
t

1 RC
h t
e
u t
RC

h(t)
1/RC
e-1/RC

Instant of time at which

h(t) decays to e-1 0.367 of its maximum value

8 - 10

System Time Constant

General case:

h(t)

(t)

h(t0)

h(t)
t0

th

Effective duration is th seconds where area under (t)

th

h(t ) dt t h h(t0 ) C h(t ) dt

0

C is an arbitrary constant between 0 and 1

Choose th to satisfy this inequality

General case applied

to RC time constant:

1
th

e RC dt
0 RC
RC
t h RC

8 - 11

Step Response
y(t) = h(t) * u(t)

u(t)

h(t)

y(t)

h(t)

u(t)

y(t)

1
t

A th
tr

tr

Here, tr is the rise time of the system

How does the rise time tr relate to the system
time constant of the impulse response?
A system generally does not respond to an input
instantaneously
8 - 12

Filtering and Time Constant

Impulse
response
Response to high
frequency input

Response
to low
frequency
input
13
8 - 13

Filtering
A system cannot effectively respond to periodic
signals with periods shorter than th
This is equivalent to a filter that passes
frequencies from 0 to 1/th Hz and attenuates
frequencies greater than 1/th Hz (lowpass filter)
1/th is called the cutoff frequency
1/tr is called the systems bandwidth (tr = th)

Bandwidth is the width of the band of positive

frequencies that are passed unchanged from
input to output
8 - 14

Transmission of Pulses
Transmission of pulses through a system (e.g.
communication channel) increases the pulse
duration (a.k.a. spreading or dispersion)
If the impulse response of the system has
duration th and pulse had duration tp seconds,
then the output will have duration th + tp
Refer to slides 5-2, 5-3 and 5-4

8 - 15