Bode Plot: What Do You Need To Know To Understand This Topic?
Bode Plot: What Do You Need To Know To Understand This Topic?
Plot online generator, examples, drawing rules, transfer function (magnitude and phase)
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Bode plot
What do you need to know to understand this topic?
Laplace transform
System transfer function
Sections
What is the Bode plot?
How to draw a bode plot?
Asymptotic drawing
Transfer function plots
With complex poles and zeros
Resources
What is the Bode plot?
A Bode plot is a graphical representation of a linear, timeinvariant system transfer function. In a linear system, any sinusoidal that
inputs the system is only changed in magnitude, when it is amplified or attenuated, and phase, when delayed. Therefore, the
system can be described for every frequency, just by its gain and phase shift. The bode plots simply trace the gain and phase
shift of the system to a range of frequencies. There are two bode plots, one plotting the magnitude (or gain) versus frequency
(Bode Magnitude plot) and another plotting the phase versus frequency (Bode Phase plot). They are represented with the
frequency in a logarithmic scale, the magnitude in decibels (20log10(magnitude)) and the phase in a linear scale.
How to draw a bode plot?
There are two ways of drawing a bode plot. One is taking the magnitude and phase of the system transfer function at each
frequency and drawing the plot with those points. The other, called asymptotic bode plot, considers straight lines between poles
or zeros and has some simple rules for the slopes of those lines. Given its simplicity, these can be drawn by hand.
Asymptotic drawing
A linear system is composed of poles and zeros, expressed in the form:
LHP RHP
The expression comes from the Laplace transformation of the transfer function from the time domain. For example, a simple first
order low pass filter has a single pole, while a firstorder high pass filter has a pole and a zero. The concatenation of these and
other higherorder (more poles and zeros) linear systems can give rise to a large expression, but always with the factorization of
poles and zeros as in the expression above.
The rules for drawing the magnitude plot are the following:
The plot starts with a horizontal line at a magnitude equal to the DC magnitude of the system (H (0) = A )
For every pole, the slope of the line decreases by 20 dB/decade of frequency at that pole's frequency
1 pole 2 poles
For every zero, the slope of the line increases by 20 dB/decade of frequency at that zero's frequency
1 zero 2 zeros
For every pole or zero at zero frequency, the plot starts with the effect of that pole/zero on the slope. Zeros and poles at zero
frequency are represented as :
H (s) = As
1
H (s) = A
s
which means that at frequency 1 rad/s, the magnitude must be equal to the DC magnitude A . Then, the trace of the plot must
cross A at 1 rad/s and be backtracked to the starting frequency of the plot.
1 pole
1 zero
1 rad/s 1 rad/s
For multiple zeros or poles at the same frequency, the slope of the line changes according to that number
Yes, it is that simple!
The rules for drawing the phase plot are the following:
Start the plot with a horizontal line at 0º phase if the gain is positive or 180º if the gain is negative (negative gain corresponds
to an inverted sinusoid and thus to a 180º phase between input and output)
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A>0 A<0
0º 180º
For each LHP pole or RHP zero, decrease the slope by 45º/decade one decade before the pole/zero, and increase by the
same amount one decade after the pole/zero. After two decades, the phase will be 90º than before for each pole/zero.
1 LHP pole 2 LHP poles
or RHP zero or 2 RHP zeros
45º 90º
45º 90º
For each RHP pole or LHP zero, increase the slope by 45º/decade one decade before the pole/zero, and decrease by the
same amount one decade after the pole/zero. After two decades, the phase will be +90º than before for each pole/zero.
45º 90º
1 RHP pole 2 RHP poles
45º or LHP zero 90º or LHP zeros
For each pole or zero at zero frequency, the plot starts with the effect of that pole/zero on the phase. For a pole:
1 1 j 1/ω
º
−1 −1
∠H (s) = ∠ = ∠ = ∠ − = tan − = tan −∞ = −90 .
s jω ω 0
For a zero:
ω
º
−1 −1
∠H (s) = ∠s = ∠jω = tan = tan ∞ = 90 .
0
Since bode plots are drawn in logarithmic scale, we never see the zero frequency. Hence, for frequencies just above zero, the
ratio above for the zero is not indeterminate and leads to 90º.
90º 90º
1 zero
1 pole
0º 0º
90º 90º
Again, yes, it is that simple!
Transfer function plots
The magnitude of the system is taken from the absolute value of the magnitude:
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−− −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
2 2 2
((ω/z0 ) + 1)((ω/z1 ) + 1) ⋯ ((ω/zn ) + 1)
|H (s)| = |A|√
2 2 2
((ω/p0 ) + 1)((ω/z1 ) + 1) ⋯ ((ω/zn ) + 1)
The phase of the system is taken from the contribution of each pole and zero for the total phase.
−1
ω −1
ω −1
ω −1
ω −1
ω −1
ω
∠H (s) = ∠A − tan ( ) − tan ( ) − ⋯ − tan ( ) + tan ( ) + tan ( ) + ⋯ + tan ( )
z0 z1 zn p0 p1 pn
Now let's compare the asymptotic plots with the transfer function plots. You can add poles and zeros to the transfer function and
verify the rules for yourself. The plot starts with a pole at 10 rad/s and a zero at 10 Krad/s. You can make your own examples by
changing these poles/zeros and adding more.
Try out these examples:
s + 1
H (s) =
s s
( + 1) ( + 1)
10 100
s
+ 1
10
H (s) =
s
s( + 1)
3
s
H (s) =
2 s
(s + 1) ( + 1)
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
101 100 101 102 103 104 105
phase(H(s))
Real plot
Asymptotic plot
20
40
60
80
100
101 100 101 102 103 104 105
With complex poles and zeros
Up until now we dealt with real poles and zeros: the asymptotic plots are pretty close to the transfer function plots. But what if the
poles or zeros are complex? Will the rules for drawing the asymptotic plots change? Will the approximation still be good?
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Notice that we took the real part of the poles or zeros to draw the plots (which in the previous case was all there was). Now we
have some imaginary parts to account for. If we take the real part of the complex poles or zeros, the asymptotic approximation
does not capture the effect of the imaginary part. First of all, complex poles or zeros come in pairs, so for every complex zero or
pole, the transfer function will also have its conjugate (with the imaginary part negated).
For a pair of roots ω ± iσ, the expression:
2 2 2
(s + ω + iσ)(s + ω − iσ) = s + 2ωs + σ + ω
can be converted to the form
2 2
s + 2ξωn s + ωn .
−−−−−−
That is, the natural frequency created by the conjugate pair is ωn = √σ 2 + ω2 and the damping ratio (how fast the oscillation
fades away) is ξ = ω/ωn . In other words, the magnitude plot will change slope around the natural frequency (not the real
part of the root), which can be calculated as above or by making a simpler approximation of the maximum of the real and
imaginary parts.
However, the peaking that exists when the damping ratio is too low is not captured.
Regarding the phase plot, we can use the same rules, but by changing the pole/zero frequency by the natural frequency of
the conjugate pair. That will give a better approximation, but for small damping ratios (σ > ω ), the slope of the phase is much
bigger than what expected by using the rules. We can however make some better approximations as described in here. The
following table shows three approximations, by stating at what frequency the asymptotic phase starts to change and at what
frequency it stops changing.
log10 (2/ξ) ξ 1
Starts changing at ωn ωn (
1
) ωn
1+5ξ
2 5
2
Stops changing at ωn
log10 (2/ξ)
ωn 5
ξ
ωn (1 + 5ξ)
There is no right or wrong here, any approximation can be used. In the plot below, I use the middle approximation.
Now you can add imaginary parts to the poles and zeros and see how they affect the bode plot of the transfer function. The
asymptotic approximation takes the natural frequency as the points of change.
Try out these examples:
s
+ 1
10
H (s) =
2
s + 3s + 50
2
s + s + 25
H (s) =
2 s
s ( + 1)
100
25
50
75
100
125
150
100 101 102 103 104 105
phase(H(s))
Real plot
Asymptotic plot
50
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100
150
200
100 101 102 103 104 105
Resources
A PDF bode plot template for you to draw your own plots on paper (from Wikipedia)
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