Control System – How to Find the Damping Ratio of a 2nd Order System Using Bode Diagram

control systemtransfer function

How to find the damping ratio of a 2nd order system by looking its bode diagram ?

Suppose I have a 2nd order system which does not resonate where it is not possible to identitfy the resonant pulsation on the bode diagram. I saw that it is possible to find the natural pulsation and then if we know the damped resonant pulsation wd it is possible to find the damping ratio as follows:

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Like this one :
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Have a nice day 🙂

Best Answer

You can estimate the damping ratio value from the Bode plot, of course. How good that estimate will be depends on the accuracy of your readings on the graph. (I redid the computation after carefully centering the reference lines and I got a slightly different result). But first and foremost you need to know what kind of transfer function you have plotted.

  1. assuming this is a second order system with no zeroes (as can be inferred from the phase plot going from 0° to -180° and the 40dB/decade slope for high frequency)...

more accurate pic

  1. ...since the phase resonance frequency is equal to the natural undamped frequency wn, we can find from the phase plot the value of wn = 2 pi fn by counting pixels and playing with scales and logarithms

detail
the pixel distance between 10k and 100k is 759
the pixel distance between 10k and f3dB is 211
the pixel distance between 10k and fn is 271

we can easily find

fn (kHz) = 10^(1+ 271/759) = 10^1.35765 = 22.75 (kHz)

so wn = 2 pi 22.75 kHz.

  1. once we have traced the -3dB reference (just count the pixels in a 10 dB interval and move the horizonal reference 3/10 of that many pixel down from the low frequency plateau - or use the simulator utilities).

  2. we can find the 3dB cutoff frequency. Again by counting pixels we find

f3dB (kHz) = 10^(1+ 211/759) = 10^(1.277998) = 18.967 (kHz)

we thus get w3dB = 2 pi 18.97 kHz. the fact that w3dB < wn tells us that this is a peakless transform (might be overdamped, critically damped or underdamped)

  1. we can now compute the ratio w3dB/wn that will allow us to find zeta

w3dB/wn = 18.967/22.75 = 0.8337...

(my previous lazy eyeball estimate was 20/22.53 = 0.8876. Kinda prove my point that the accuracy of the results relies on how carefully you get the values)

Note that the fact that w3dB > 0.644 wn tells us that we are in the underdamped case where, since w3dB < wn, there is no peak in the transfer function.

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Relative position of 3dB cutoff frequency with respect to natural undamped frequency wn allows us to tell whether the second order transfer function without zeroes belongs to a: overdamped (w3dB < 0.644 wn), critically damped (w3dB = 0.644 wn) or underdamped (w3dB > 0.644 wn) system and even if the magnitude of the transfer function has a peak (w3dB > wn) or not ( 0.644 wn < w3dB < wn). The above graph shows the TF for two distinct real poles (whose partial contributes are shown) for zeta = 1.75, that is for an overdamped system, and dashed, the curve for a critically damped system with two identical real poles)

We have to expect a value of zeta greater than 1/sqrt(2) = 0.707...

  1. By equating the magnitude of the transfer function to the -3dB level, that is to 1/sqrt(2), or better yet, the square of the magnitude to 1/2, we can find after a bit of boring, elementary algebra:

dfffd

Solving for w3dB/wn = 0.8337 we find

zeta = 0.828
(and wd = 0.56 wn)

This new, hopefully more accurate estimate for zeta is even farther away from the frontier between the no-peak vs peak regions of the underdamped zone. If the assumption we made about the transfer function is correct, then we are in the underdamped region (zeta < 1) where there is no peak (zeta > 0.707).

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The boundary bewteen the "No peak" and "Resonance peak" regions in the underdamped zone is at zeta = 1/sqrt(2) = 0.707...

If we round the 3dB frequency at 19 kHz, with w3dB/wn = 10/22.75 = we get zeta = 0.827. In any case, that's a far cry from the critically damped case of zeta=1 and not even particularly close to the border between the "there is a peak" and "there is not a peak" set by zeta = 1/sqrt2 = 0.707... (corresponding to w3dB=0.644 wn). The poles are complex conjugates with an angle of 56° wrt to the imaginary axis and 34° with respect to the negative real axis (the peak no-peak border requires an angle of 45°)

I suggest you redo the computation after having extracted your values from the graph. Better yet, do it on a known function to assess the accuracy of the method.
See also my last answer to the question Finding resonant frequency or damping ratio from Bode Plot