Module-23 - Nyquist Stability Criterion: EE3101-Control Systems Engineering
Module-23 - Nyquist Stability Criterion: EE3101-Control Systems Engineering
Module-23 - Nyquist Stability Criterion: EE3101-Control Systems Engineering
Note: Refer the Video Lectures No-35 and 36 of Control Systems Engineering by Prof. M Gopal
The Nyquist criterion is a semi graphical method that determines the stability of a closed loop system by
investigating the properties of the frequency domain plot, the Nyquist Plot, of the loop transfer function
G(s)H(s) or L(s). Specifically, the Nyquist plot of L(s) is a plot of L() in the polar coordinates of
Im[L()] versus Re[L()] as varies from 0 . This is another example of using the properties of
the loop transfer function to find the performance of the closed loop system. The Nyquist criteria has the
following features.
1. In addition to providing the absolute stability, like the RH Criterion, the Nyquist criterion also gives
information on the relative stability of a stable system and the degree of instability of an unstable
system. It also gives an indication of how the system stability may be improved, if needed.
2. The Nyquist plot of G(s)H(s) or of L(s) is very easy to obtain, especially with the aid of a computer
3. The Nyquist Plot of G(s)H(s) gives information on the frequency domain characteristics such as
Resonant peak, resonant frequency, BW and others with ease.
4. The Nyquist Plot is useful for systems with pure time delay that cannot be treated with the RH
criterion and are difficult to analyze with the root locus method
Stability Problem:
The Nyquist Criterion represents the method of determining the location of the characteristic
equation roots with respect to the left half and the right half of the s-plane. Unlike the root locus
method, the Nyquist criterion does not give the exact location of the characteristic equation roots.
Let us consider the closed loop transfer function of a SISO system is
)
= )
1 + ))
Because the characteristic equation is obtained by setting the denominator polynomial of M(s) to
zero, the roots of the characteristic equation are also the zeros of 1+G(s)H(s). or the characteristic
equation must satisfy = )1 + ) = )0
In general, for a system with multiple number of loops, the denominator M(s) can be written as
= )1 + = )0
Where L(s) is the loop transfer function
Stability Conditions:
(a) Open loop Stability: A system is said to be open loop stable if the poles of the open loop transfer
function L(s) are all in left half s-plane.
(b) Closed loop stability: A system is said to be closed loop stable or simple stable if the poles of the
closed loop transfer function or the zeros of 1+L(s) are all in left half s-plane. Exceptions to the
above definitions are systems with poles or zeros intentionally placed at s=0
Encircled:
A point or region in a complex function plane is said to be encircled by a closed path if it is found
inside the path
For example point A in fig (a) is encircled by the closed path , because A is inside the closed path.
Point B is not encircled by the closed path , because it is outside the path. Further more when the
closed path has a direction assigned to it, the encirclement if made can be in clock wise (CW) or
the counter clock wise (CCW) direction. As shown in the fig (a) point A is encircled by in the
CCW direction. We can say that the region inside the path is encircled in the prescribed direction,
and the region outside the path is not encircled.
Enclosed:
A point or region is said to be enclosed by a closed path if it is encircled in the CCW direction or the
point or region lies to the left of the path when the path is traversed in the prescribed direction
The concept of enclosure is particularly useful if only a portion of the closed path is shown. For
example the shaded regions in the figs (b) and (c) are considered to be enclosed by the closed path .
In other words, point A in fig(b) is enclosed by , but point A in fig(c) is not. However point B and
all the points in the shaded region outside in fig(c) are enclosed
When a point is encircled by a closed path , a number N can be assigned to the number of times it
is encircled. The magnitude of N can be determined by drawing an arrow from the point to any
arbitrary point s1 on the closed path and then letting s1 follow the path in the prescribed direction
until it returns to the starting point. The total net number of revolutions traversed by this arrow is N,
or the net angle is 2 radians. For example point A in the fig (d) is encircled once or 2 radians by
, and point B is encircled twice or 4 radians, all CW direction. In fig (e) , point A is enclosed
once, and point B is enclosed twice by . By definition, N is positive for CCW encirclement and
negative for CW encirclement.
Principle of Argument:
Let )be a single valued function that has a finite number of poles in the s-plane. Suppose that an
arbitrary closed path is chosen in the s-plane so that the path does not go through any one of the
poles or zeros of ;)the corresponding locus mapped in the )plane will encircle the origin
as many times the difference between the number of zeros and poles of )that are encircled by the
s-plane locus
Where
1. N>0(Z>P). If the s-plane locus encircles more zeros than poles of )in a certain prescribed
direction (CW or CCW), N is a positive integer. In this case, )plane locus will encircle
the origin of the )plane N times in the same direction as that of
2. N=0(Z=P). If s-plane locus encircles as many poles as zeros, no poles and zeros of ), the
)plane locus will not encircle the origin of the )plane
3. N<0(Z<P). If s-plane locus encircles more poles than zeros of )in a certain direction, N is
negative integer. In this case the )plane locus will encircle the origin N times in the
opposite direction as that of
A convenient way of determining N with respect to the origin or any point of the )plane is
draw a line from the point in any direction to a point as far as necessary. The number of net
intersection of this line with the )locus gives the magnitude of N. figure below shows several
examples. In these cases it is assumed that the locus has a CCW sense.
Critical Point:
For convenience, we shall designate the origin of the )plane as the critical point from which
the value of N is determined
Nyquist Path:
Principle of argument could be applied to solve the stability problem if the s-plane locus is taken
to be one that encircles the entire right half of the s-plane. Of course as an alternative can be
chosen to encircle the entire left half s-plane, as the solution is a relative one. Figure below
illustrates a locus with a CCW sense that encircles the entire right half of the s-plane.
This path is chosen to be the s-plane trajectory for the Nyquist criterion, since in mathematics;
CCW is traditionally defined to be positive sense. The path in the figure shown is defined to be
Nyquist path. Because Nyquist path must not pass through any poles and zeros of ), the small
semicircles shown along the axis in the figure are used to indicate that the path should go around
these poles and zeros if they fall on the axis. It is apparent that, if any pole and zero of )lies
inside the right half s-plane, it will be encircled by the Nyquist path .
The Nyquist criterion is a direct application of the principle of argument when the s-plane locus is
the Nyquist path of the figure above. In principle, once the Nyquist path is specified, the stability of
a closed loop system can be determined by plotting the = )1 + )locus when s taken on
values along the Nyquist path and investigating the behavior of the )plot with respect to the
critical point, which in this case is the origin of the )plane.
It would be simpler to construct the L(s) plot that corresponds to the Nyquist path, and the same
conclusion on the stability of the closed loop system can be obtained by observing the behavior of
the L(s) plot with respect to the (-1, j0) point in the L(s) plane.
This is because the origin of the = )1 + )plane corresponds to the (-1, j0) point in the L(s)
plane. Thus the (-1, j0) point in the L(s) plane becomes the critical point for the determination of the
closed loop stability.
For single loop systems, L(s)=G(s)H(s), the previous developments leads to the determination of the
closed loop stability by investigating the behavior of the G(s)H(s) plot with respect to the (-1, j0)
point of the G(s)H(s) plane. Thus, the Nyquist stability criterion is another example of using the loop
transfer function properties to find the behavior of closed loop systems.
Thus a given control system that has the characteristic equation given by equating the numerator
polynomial of 1+L(s) to zero, where L(s) is the loop transfer function, the application of the Nyquist
criterion to the stability problem involves the following steps
P= Number of poles of 1+L(s) that are inside the Nyquist path, that is, the right half s-plane.
Notice that the poles of 1+L(s) are the same as that of L(s)
The stability requirements for the two types of stability defined earlier are interpreted in terms of
Z and P
For closed loop stability Z must equal zero
For open loop stability P must equal zero
Thus the condition of stability according to the Nyquist criterion is stated as N=-P
That is,
For closed loop system to be stable, the L(s) plot must encircle the (-1, j0) point as many times as
the number of poles of L(s) that are in the right half s-plane, and the encirclement if any, must be
made in the clockwise direction (if is defined in the CCW sense)
Reference Books: