Double Imaginary Root Degeneracies in Time-Delayed Systems and CTCR Treatment

The dynamics we treat here is a very special and degenerate class of linear time-invariant time-delayed systems (LTI-TDS) with commensurate delays, which exhibit a double imaginary root for a particular value of the delay. The stability behavior of the system within the immediate proximity of this parametric setting which creates the degenerate dynamics is investigated. Several recent investigations also handled this class of systems from the perspective of calculus of variations. We approach the same problem from a different angle, using a recent paradigm called Cluster Treatment of Characteristic Roots (CTCR). We convert one of the parameters in the system into a variable and perturb it around the degenerate point of interest, while simultaneously varying the delay. Clearly, only a particular selection of this arbitrary parameter and the delay enforce the degeneracy. All other adjacent points would be free of the mentioned degeneracy, and therefore can be handled with the CTCR paradigm. Analysis then reveals that the parametrically limiting stability behavior of the dynamics can be extracted by simply using CTCR. The results are shown to be very much aligned with the other investigations on the problem. Simplicity and numerical speed of CTCR may be considered as practical advantages in analyzing such systems. This approach also exhibits the capabilities of CTCR in handling these degenerate cases contrary to the convictions in earlier reports. An example case study is provided to demonstrate these features.