ELEC341 Systems and Control

L11 – Signal flow graphs

Jan 26, 2017
Edmond Cretu
Dept. of Electrical and Computer
Engineering

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 Administrative issues
• Midterm 1 – Feb 3, 11am
• Friday, Jan 27, 11am – solving problems
(tutorial) – Anahita Shojae (TA)
• TA list:
– Anahita Shojae (anahitas@ece.ubc.ca)
– Zhao Te (Teresa) (zhaote94@ece.ubc.ca)
– Hamid Moradi Kashkouli (hmoradi@ece.ubc.ca)
– Barbara Ramos Macias (barbara93@ece.ubc.ca)

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 Last time
• Techniques for general circuit analysis and
reduction
– Revise basic circuits methods, op amps circuits
– Posted a complementary paper – how to apply
superposition for dependent sources
• Techniques for visual block diagrams reduction
towards a single transfer function

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 Example
• Find the equivalent transfer function
T(s)=C(s)/R(s)

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 Solution
• Combine the parallel block in the forward
path, then push 1/s to the left past the pickoff
point

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From block diagrams to signal flow graphs
(SFGs)
• SFGs – complementary representation of
information flow in systems (branches/arcs as
transfer functions, nodes as signals)
• Advantage: the adder blocks from block
diagrams are replaced by an implicit
representation (more compact representation)
• Block diagrams require iterative reduction to
compute overall transfer function
• With SFGs, we can directly compute the overall
transfer function using Mason’s gain formula
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 Signal flow graphs basics
• Block diagram representation of a DC motor
transfer function:
G(s) (s)
Vf(s)

Signal flow graph representation of the same transfer function:

Directed branch: gain

node Node variable

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 From block diagrams to SFG exm

Rule in writing equations:

node variable=summation of all branch
signals entering a node

Y1  G11 R1  G12 R2
Y2  G21 R1  G22 R2

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 SFGs and linear equations
• SFG is a graphical compact representation of a set
of linear relations

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Converting common block diagrams to
signal-flow graphs
• Start by drawing the signal nodes, and then
interconnect the signal nodes with system
branches

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Parallel block interconnection to SFG

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 Feedback control system

(- feedback at the summing point case)

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 More complex example

1. Draw signal nodes:

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 Example (cont.)
2. Interconnect the
nodes, showing the
direction of signal
flow and
identifying each
transfer function:

3. Simplify (if
intermediate signals not
necessary) the SFG by
eliminating signals that
have a single flow in
and a single flow out

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 Closed-loops representation
• SFGs are pictorial representations of
algebraic equations, directly illustrating the
dependences between variables

x1  r1  a12 x2  a11 x1
x2  r2  a21 x1  a22 x2

Q: build the associated block

diagram

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 SFG reduction – Mason’s rule
• Block diagram reduction – successive application of
fundamental relationships for finding H(s)
• SFG reduction to a single branch H(s) can be
obtained by the application of a single formula,
Mason’s rule (Mason’s gain formula - MGF)
• Formula derived by Samuel Jefferson Mason
(1953), as an alternative visual way of solving linear
equations
• MGF can handle SFGs with many variables and
loops, but the complexity of the computation
increases fast with the number of existing
(nontouching) loops in the graph
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 Some definitions
• Input (source) node= a node that has only outgoing branches
• Output (sink) node= a node that has only incoming branches
• Path = a branch or a continuous succession of branches
traversed in the same direction from one starting node to an
end node
• Forward path = path connecting a source to a sink without
visiting any node more than once
• Loop=closed path not visiting any node more than once
• Path gain =product of gains on the path
• Forward-path gain = product of gains on forward path
• Loop gain = product of gains on a loop
• Non-touching loops =loops that have no node in common

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 Loop gain examples
• There are four loop gains:

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 Forward-path gains
• Product of gains found by traversing a path from input
node to the output node in the direction of signal flow

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 Nontouching loops
• Loops that do no have any nodes in common

Loop G2H1 does not touch loops G4H2, G4G5H3 and G4G6H3

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 Nontouching loop gains
• The product of loop gains from nontouching loops taken
2,3,4… at a time

All three of the nontouching-loop gain taken two at a time:

There are no nontouching-
loop gains taken three at a
time (no three nontouching
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 SFG of a feedback loop
• Solving the linear algebraic equations set
(determinant method) => Mason’s gain formula

G s
Y s  R s
1 G s H s

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 Mason’s gain formula (MGF)
• Assuming SFG with N forward paths, the gain
between the input node and the output node is
given by:
Yout  s  
N
Gk  k
G s   k 1

Yin  s  
  1   Li   Li L j   Li L j Lk  ..   1 L L
m
i1 i 2 ..Lim

=the determinant of the graph,

Yin = input node variable, Yout =output node variable
N=total no of forward paths between Yin and Yout

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 MGF (2)
Gk=path gain of the kth forward path between Yin and Yout
Lj=loop gain of each closed loop in the system
LiLj=product of the loop gains of any two nontouching loops
LiLjLk=product of three loop gains of any three pairwise
nontouching loops
k=the cofactor value of  for the kth forward path, with the
loops touching the kth forward path removed

Yout  s  
N
Gk  k
G s   k 1

Yin  s  
  1   Li   Li L j   Li L j Lk  ..   1 L L
m
i1 i 2 ..Lim

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 MGF (3)
• It is an alternative visual solution procedure to the
determinant based solution in linear algebra

Yout  s  
N
Gk  k
G s   k 1

Yin  s  
  1   Li   Li L j   Li L j Lk  ..   1 L L
m
i1 i 2 ..Lim

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 Applying MGF
1. Make a list of all forward paths and their gains
Gk
2. Make a list of all the loops and their gains Li
3. Make a list of all pairs of nontouching loops and
the products of their gains LiLj
4. Make a list of all pairwise nontouching loops
taken three at the time LiLjLk, then four at a
time, and so forth, until there are no more
5. Compute the determinant  and cofactors k
6. Apply MGF formula
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 Simple example
• Simple feedback loop case

One forward path (N=1): G(s)

One loop only – loop gain –G(s)H(s)
The determinant:
 
  1  G  s  H  s   1  GH
Cofactor k (no loop nontouching the forward path): 1  1
The transfer function: C  s  G  s  1 G s
T s   
R s  1 G s H s
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 Exm 2 - More complex example
• Find the transfer function C(s)/R(s) for the SFG below

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 Exm 2
1. Identify the forward paths and their gains

There is only one forward path, of gain G1G2G3G4G5

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 Exm 2
2. Identify the loops and their gains

L2
L1 L3
L4

There are 4 loops:

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 Exm2
3. Identify the nontouching loops taken two at a time

L2
L1 L3
L4

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 Exm2
4. Identify nontouching loops taken three at a time
5. There are no nontouching loops taken four at a time

L2
L1 L3
L4

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 Exm 2
6. Compute the determinant 

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 Exm 2
7. Compute the cofactors k – a single forward path, a single cofactor.
We eliminate from  the loop gains touching the forward path

L2
L1 L3
L4

T1  G1  s  G2  s  G3  s  G4  s  G5  s   1  1  G7  s  H 4  s 
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 Exm 2 - MGF
• Obtain the transfer function by applying MFG

L2
L1 L3
L4

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 Remarks
• MGF can be used for rather complex LTI systems,
but it needs cautious when following the steps
• In the complementary textbook a different notation
is used (same meaning)

Y s 1 N
MGF : T  s     Pk  k
R  s   k 1

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 Summary
• Both block diagrams and signal flow graphs are
visual representations of information flow
(causal) modeling approach
• To compute an overall transfer function, we
can use either successive reduction steps (like
for block diagrams) or we can apply Mason’s
gain formula
• The graph determinant  can be used other
related transfer functions (e.g. noise response)
of the system
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