Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

Note 5

Time Response

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

1. System Models
In this course, we consider linear and time-invariant systems whose input/output behavior is
governed by a set of ordinary linear differential equations with constant coefficients. We have
looked at modeling of dynamic systems and expressing the model by using a transfer function.

Lets consider a general linear and time-invariant dynamic system with the transfer function
given by

bo s m + b1 s m1 + ... + bm1 s + bm
G ( s) =
ao s n + a1 s n1 + ... + a n 1 s + a n

Note n is the highest power of s in the denominator of the above transfer function. According to
this, this system is called nth order system. The denominator of the transfer function, i.e.,
ao s n + a1 s n1 + ... + an1 s + an , is called the characterization function.

The roots of the denominator of the above transfer function (or the characterization function)
are called the poles of the transfer function. In other words, the poles are any roots of the
following equations

ao s n + a1 s n1 + ... + an1 s + an = 0

Meanwhile, the roots of the numerator of the above transfer function are called the zeros of the
transfer function. In other words, the zeros are any roots of the following equations

bo s m + b1 s m1 + ... + bm1 s + bm = 0

We can represent the poles and zeros of a transfer function in the complex plane (or the s-
plane). In this course, we will see the locations of poles and zeros in s-plane are very important
to the system dynamics.

Example
Find the poles and zeros of the following transfer function and then represent them in the s-
plane.

s
G ( s) =
s + 2s + 5
2

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

2. First-Order Systems
A first-order system without zeros can be represented by the following transfer function

K K /
G ( s) = =
s + a s +1 /

1
Given a step input, i.e., R(s) = , then the system output (called step response in this case) is
s

K / K K
C(s) = R( s)G ( s) = =
s( s +1 / ) s s +1 /

Taking inverse Laplace transform, we have the step response

c(t ) = K (1 e t / )

Plot c(t) versus time:

c(t)

0.63K

Time (secs)
t =

Time Constant:

If t = , then e t / = 0.37 . So the step response is

c(t ) = K (1 0.37) = 0.63K

is referred to as the time constant of the response. In other words, the time constant is the
time it takes for the step response to rise to 63% of its final value. Because of this, the time
constant is used to measure how fast a system can respond. The time constant has a unit of
seconds.

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

Example
The following figure gives the measurements of the step response of a first-order system, find
the transfer function of the system.

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

3. Second-Order Systems

3.1 General Second-Order Systems

A general second-order system is characterized by the following transfer function

b
G ( s) =
s + as + b
2

We can re-write the above transfer function in the following form, which has two physically
meaningful specifications,

n2
G ( s) =
s 2 + 2 n s + n2

where n ( n = b ) is referred to as the natural frequency of the second order system,

Now that we have defined n and , let us relate these quantities to the pole location. Solving
for the poles of the above transfer function yields

s1, 2 = n n 2 1

From the above, we can see that the poles can be either real numbers or complex numbers,
depending on the value of .

According the value of , a second-order system can be set into one of the four categories:
undamped, underdamped, critically damped, and overdamped.

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

Second-order response as a function of damping ratio

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

3.2 Underdamped Second-Order Systems

If the damping ratio of a second-order system is in the range of 0 < < 1 , then it is
1
underdamped. Given a step input, i.e., R(s) = , then the system output (or step response) is
s

n2
C(s) = R( s)G ( s) =
s( s 2 + 2 n s + n2 )

Taking inverse Laplace transform, we have the step response

c(t ) = 1
1
1
2
(
e nt sin n 1 2 t + )

1 2
where : = tan 1 , which can be determined from the pole location as shown in the


following figure.

Im

s1 = n + j n 1 2 + j n 1 2

Re
n

s2 = n j n 1 2 j n 1 2

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

The typical step response of an underdamped second-order system is shown in the following
figure. The step response can be characterized by using rise time, peak time, percent overshoot,
and settling time.

Peak time, TP. The peak time is the time required for the response to reach the first peak,
which is given by

TP =
n 1 2

Percent overshoot, %OS. The percent overshoot is defined as the amount that the waveform
at the peak time overshoots the steady-state value, which is expressed as a percentage of the
steady-state value.

%OS = e ( / 1 2 )
100

For given %OS, the damping ratio can be solved from the above equation

ln(%OS / 100)
=
2 + ln 2 (%OS / 100)

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

Setting time, Ts. The settling time is the time required for the amplitude of the sinusoid to
decay to 2% of the steady-state value.

4
Ts =
n

Rise time, Tr. The time required for the waveform to go from 0.1 of the final value to 0.9 of
the final value. A precise analytical relationship between rise time and damping ratio cannot be
found. To find Tr, we need to use a computer, or we can use the following figure to obtain an
approximate value of Tr (which will be illustrated in class).

nTr = 1.76 3 0.417 2 + 1.039 + 1

Example 1

100
Given the transfer function G ( s ) =
s + 15s + 100
2

find Tp, %OS, Ts, and Tr.

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Lecture Notes of Control Systems I - ME 431/Analysis and Synthesis of Linear Control System - ME862

Example 2

Given the system shown in the following figure, find J and D to yield 20% overshoot and a
setting time of 2 seconds for a step input of torque T(t).

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