We derive absolute stability results for well-posed infinite-dimensional
systems which, in a sense, extend the well-known circle criterion
to the case that the underlying linear system is the series
interconnection of an exponentially stable well-posed
infinite-dimensional system
and an integrator and the nonlinearity ϕ
satisfies a sector condition of the form (ϕ(u),ϕ(u) - au) ≤ 0 for some constant a>0. These results are used to prove
convergence and stability properties of low-gain integral feedback control
applied to exponentially stable, linear, well-posed systems subject to
actuator nonlinearities. The class of actuator nonlinearities under
consideration contains standard nonlinearities which are important in control
engineering such as saturation and deadzone.