Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment 1
Submitted by:
Muhammad Arsalan
Roll No: 118699
MSEE (PE&C)
Submitted to:
Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad Rana
Nonlinear Systems
All the existing real world systems are nonlinear in nature. Nonlinear systems are those systems,
whose differential equations involve at least one higher order polynomial term, regarded as
nonlinearity, in it. These are the systems, which do not satisfy the superposition principle.
2) Finite Escape Time: The state of an unstable linear system goes to infinity as time
approaches infinity, but the state of a nonlinear system can go to infinity in finite time.
For instance, the following system response can go to infinity in finite time depending
upon
the
initial
condition:
= + 2
The behavior of the system is shown in the figure. 1. If the initial conditions are x(0) > 1 then
the system response will go to infinity in finite time.
3) Limit Cycles: Nonlinear systems can display oscillations of fixed amplitude and period
without external excitation. These self-excited oscillations are termed as Limit Cycles.
On the other hand, linear systems also exhibit oscillations but it is extremely difficult to
maintain the amplitude of these oscillations in the presence of perturbations. They occur
due to the presence of pair of Eigen values on the imaginary axis and their amplitude is
dependent on the initial conditions. But the Limit Cycles are independent of the initial
conditions. For instance the system described by the following equation will exhibit limit
cycle:
+ 2( 2 1) + = 0
where m, c and k are positive constants.
This system can be realized by the mass spring damper system with position dependent
damping coefficient. Similarly, it can also be realized as an RLC series circuit with
nonlinear position dependent resistor. For large values of x, the damping coefficient is
positive and it removes energy from the system. Similarly, for small values of x, the
energy is absorbed in the system. Hence the limit cycle sustained oscillations by releasing
energy into the environment and then by absorbing energy from the system. Moreover,
these oscillations are also independent of the initial conditions.
4) Subharmonic, Harmonic and Almost Periodic Oscillations: A linear system under the
influence of a periodic input will produce an output of the same frequency. On the other
hand, the nonlinear systems under the influence of a periodic input can produce
oscillations that are multiple and submultiple of the input frequency. It may even generate
and almost-periodic oscillations. For example, the sum of periodic oscillations with
frequencies that are not multiples of each other with give such oscillations.
5) Chaos: For stable linear systems, small differences in initial conditions will cause small
difference in the output. However, nonlinear systems are extremely sensitive to the initial
conditions. A slight difference in initial conditions may produce a totally different output.
Hence, it is not possible to predict the exact output of the system i.e. Steady State
behavior is unpredictable. This nonlinear phenomenon is termed as Chaos.
6) Bifurcation: Stability of equilibrium points and even the number of equilibrium points
can change on changing the parameters of a nonlinear system. This qualitative change in
the nature of the system due to the quantitative change in the system parameters is termed
as bifurcation. The values of these parameters on which the qualitative nature changes are
termed as bifurcation values.
4) Design Simplicity: Since, nonlinear controllers are deeply rooted in the design physics of
the system, so their design is more intuitive and simple as compared to linear controllers.
On the other hand, linear controllers require finding a linearized system matrix and its
Eigen values to design a sophisticated controller. But actually, the systems stability has
very little to do with these Eigen values.
5) Cost Effectiveness: Linear Controllers require special sensors and actuators, which give
linear response over a specified range. It is due to the fact that the nonlinearities may
cause instability to the system. Hence, these sensors and actuators are expensive. While,
nonlinear controllers can utilize economical sensors whose responses are nonlinear in
nature. Hence making the cost of overall system economical.