The Cluster Treatment of Characteristic Roots and the Neutral Type Time-Delayed Systems

Abstract

A new methodology is presented for assessing the stability posture of a general class of linear time-invariant – neutral time-delayed systems (LTI-NTDS). It is based on a “Cluster Treatment of Characteristic Roots CTCR” paradigm. The technique offers a number of unique features: It returns exact bounds of time delay for stability, furthermore it yields the number of unstable characteristic roots of the system in an explicit and non-sequentially evaluated function of time delay. As a direct consequence of the latter feature, the new methodology creates entirely, all existing stability intervals of delay, τ. It is shown that the CTCR inherently enforces an intriguing necessary condition for τ-stabilizability, which is the main contribution of this paper. This, so called “small delay” effect, was recognized earlier for NTDS, only through some cumbersome mathematics. In addition to the above listed characteristics, the CTCR is also unique in handling systems with unstable starting posture for τ = 0, which may be τ-stabilized for higher values of delay. Example cases are provided.