Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T.

Bombay, India

Lecture 10: Frequency Response

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Frequency Response

Response of the process to signals of varying frequencies.

A process can pass certain frequencies and block others.

Implicit Assumption: Any signal can be decomposed into

sinusoidal components having different frequencies.

For example, this signal can be

assumed to be consisting of a low
frequency signal superimposed
with a high frequency signal
Noisy sinusoidal
signal
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Frequency Response

The inherent reluctance of a process and its natural dynamics determines its
response to various frequencies.

The reluctance is mostly a hindrance but sometime it can help !

Qc
F,z D,xd

A surge tank before the feed can

dampen out the disturbances
and stabilize column operation Qh
B,xb
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Analysis of Dynamics via frequency response

W=0.1 rad/sec

W=1 rad/sec

W=5 rad/sec
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Frequency Response Generation

Process Transfer function y( s)

G( s)
u( s)

Input signal
w
u(t) = sin (w t) u ( s) 2
s 2
w
y(s) G(s) 2

s w 2

And then invert this in the time domain to get the frequency
response.
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Basic Complex Algebra

Given a complex number z=a+ j b, it can be represented in the

complex plane as shown below.

Im. axis

Real axis

Magnitude of z denoted by |z|= (a2+b2)0.5 and angle is tan-1 (b/a)

and z can be more compactly represented as z=|z| ej
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Short cut Method for Frequency Response Generation

Step 1: s=jw in G(s) to obtain G(jw)

Step 2: Rationalize G(jw) to obtain Real and imaginary parts
Step 3: The output sine wave will have an amplitude Aout=A(Real2 +
Imag2) and the phase angle is =tan-1( Imag/ Real).

Illustrative example
1
1 G ( jw)
G(s) jw 1
s 1
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Short cut Method for Frequency Response Generation

jw 1 1 jw
G ( jw) 2 2 2 2 2 2
w 1 w 1 w 1
1 w
Re( jw) 2 2 and Im( jw) 2 2
w 1 w 1
Output Amplitude is therefore

1 w
2 2 1
2 2 2 2
w 1 w 1 2 w2 1

Phase is therefore tan 1 ( w )

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Representation of Frequency Response Information

Bode Plots: Plot the amplitude ratio (AR) and the phase lag on
two separate plots called the Magnitude and the phase plots.
For the illustrative example,

Magnitude plots are

typically logarithmic
but phase plots are
semi-logarithmic.
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Representation of Frequency Response Information

Nyquist Plots: Plot the amplitude ratio (AR) and the phase lag
on the same plot in the imaginary plane.Treat G(jw) as a
complex number and plot the Real(G) and Imag(G) on the
diagram.

Note: Unlike the bode plot, the phase angle is implicit in the plot here.
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Frequency Response of several systems in series

If g(s) = g1(s)g2(s)g3(s) gN(s), then they can all be expressed in the

frequency domain as g(jw)=g1(jw)g2(jw)g3(jw) gN(jw)

Using the polar form of representation g(jw)=|g1||g2||g3||g4| . |gN|

ej, where , is the summation of the individual phase angles.

Thus, the bode plots of higher order systems can be constructed

from the local building blocks.
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

General behaviour of the frequency response plots

The amplitude ratio plots generally decay at higher frequencies,

more so for chemical processes. The rate of decay is a function
of the order of the process.

The phase plot asymptotically approaches (p-q) times 90o at

high frequencies, where p is the number of poles and q is the
number of zeros. Can you guess why ?

Also, what is the frequency response of a pure delay process ?

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Interpretations from the frequency response

K
First Order Processes G ( jw)
jw 1
K
AR and Phase are: tan 1 ( w )
2 w2 1
It is convenient to work in terms of a magnitude ratio:
AR 1
log( ) log( 2 w2 1)
K 2
As 0, AR/K 1 and log (AR/K) log(1); gives the low
frequency asymptote
As , and log (AR/K) -log() ; gives the high frequency
asymptote
(The two asymptotes meet at =1), I.e. at =1/. Thus the natural
time constant has a role in the frequency response.)
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Pure Capacity System: Frequency Response

K
G ( s) ,
s
K
G ( jw)
jw
K
AR ,
w
tan 1 () 90o
AR
log( ) log(w)
K
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Pure Lead System: Frequency Response

G ( s) K (s 1) ,

G ( jw) K (jw 1)

AR K 1 w2 2 ,

tan 1 (w)
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Lead - Lag System: Frequency Response

Effective Lag

(s 1)
G ( s) K ,
s 1

(jw 1)
G ( jw) K
jw 1

Effective Lead
1 w2 2
AR K ,
2 2
1 w

tan 1 (w) tan 1 (w)

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Second-order Systems: Frequency Response

Amplitude
(1)
G ( s) K ,
( 1s 1)( 2 s 1)
(1) Phase
G ( jw) K
( 1 jw 1)( 2 jw 1)
1
AR K , 180o at higher frequencies
2 2
1 w2 1 1 w2 2
0o at lower frequencies
AR 1 2 2 1 2
log( ) (1 w 1 ) (1 w2 2 )
K 2 2
AR
log( ) log(1), at low frequencies
K
and to - 2log(w ) at higher frequencies
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

General Second-order Systems: Frequency Response

Effect of damping factor
Transfer Function

(K )
G ( s) 2 2
,
( s 2s 1)
AR 1
,
K 2 2 2
(1 w ) (2w ) 2

2w
1
tan 2 2
1 w

It can be shown that the AR curve shows a hump for all values of less
than 0.707 and the maxima occurs at
1
r 1 2 2

Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Other higher order systems: Frequency Response

Lead time constant >

lag time constants

Lead time constant <

lag time constants
Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T. Bombay, India

Time Delay Systems

G ( s) e s , G ( jw) e jw
AR
1,
K
w