MATLAB for Engineers

Adrian Biran
Moshe Breiner

ADDISON-WESLEY PUBLISHING COMPANY

Wokingham, England • Reading, Massachusetts • Menlo Park, California
New York • Don Mills, Ontario • Amsterdam • Bonn • Sydney • Singapore
Tokyo • Madrid • San Juan • Milan • Mexico City • Seoul • Taipei
Contents

Preface v
1 MATLAB in a nutshell 1
1.1 Desktop calculations 1
1.1.1 Getting started 1
1.1.2 Arithmetic operations 2
1.1.3 Last-line editing 3
1.1.4 A few built-in functions 3
1.1.5 Naming constants and variables 6
1.1.6 Format 8
1.1.7 Diary 10
1.2 One-dimensional arrays and graphics 10
1.2.1 Arrays - elementary operations 10
1.2.2 More operations on arrays 12
1.2.3 Row vectors and column vectors 14
1.2.4 The scalar product 15
1.2.5 Simple plots 16
1.3 Matrices 17
1.3.1 Defining a matrix 17
1.3.2 Elementary operations with matrices 19
1.3.3 Printing a table 21
1.4 Complex numbers 22
1.4.1 Complex numbers - elementary operations 22
1.4.2 Two notes on the use of i and j 23
1.4.3 Plotting a complex number 24
1.4.4 Trigonometric and exponential representations 25
1.4.5 Functions of complex variables 27
1.4.6 Arrays of complex numbers 27
1.5 Systems of linear equations 28
1.5.1 Determinants 28
1.5.2 Cramer's rule 29
1.5.3 Matrix inversion 31
ix
X CONTENTS

1.5.4 Solving Systems of linear equations in MATLAB . . . . 31

1.6 Polynomials 32
1.6.1 Polynomial roots 32
1.6.2 Retrieving polynomial coefficients from polynomial roots 33
1.6.3 Polynomial evaluation 33
1.6.4 Multiplication and division of polynomials 34
1.7 Programming in MATLAB 35
1.7.1 Programming a function 36
1.7.2 Repetitive control structures - FOR loops 37
1.7.3 Conditional control structures 38
1.7.4 Repetitive control structures - WHILE loops 40
1.8 External files and programs 42
1.8.1 Saving and loading data 42
1.8.2 The CUMSUM and DIFF functions 43
1.8.3 Reading data from external files 45
1.8.4 Issuing commands to the operating system 46
1.8.5 Writing output to external files 46
1.9 Regression and interpolation 47
1.9.1 Tables with one entry 47
1.9.2 Tables with two entries 48
1.9.3 Polynomial fit and polynomial interpolation 49
1.9.4 Spline interpolation 51
1.10 More about plotting 52
1.10.1 Function evaluation 52
1.10.2 Histograms 53
1.10.3 Polar plots 54
1.10.4 A more elaborate polar plot 55
1.10.5 Three-dimensional plots in MATLAB 3.5 56
1.11 Interpolation and 3D plots in MATLAB 4 58
1.11.1 More interpolating functions in MATLAB 4 58
1.11.2 The GRIDDATA function and 3D plots 60
1.11.3 More 3D plots 62

1 MATLAB - AN INTRODUCTION FOR ENGINEERS 65

2 Desktop calculations with graphics 67
2.1 Introduction 67
2.2 Computer-aided mistakes 67
2.3 Computer representation of numbers 68
2.4 Roundoff 71
2.5 Roundoff errors 72
2.6 The set of machine numbers 74
2.7 Vectors 76
2.8 Column vectors 78
2.9 A spreadsheet •. 79
 CONTENTS XI

2.10 Geometrical significance of the scalar product 81

2.11 Graphical solution of equations 82
2.12 Summary 86
2.13 Examples 88
2.14 Exercises 110
2.15 Appendix - a note on Fourier series 124

3 Two-dimensional arrays and matrices 125

3.1 Building a matrix out of vectors 125
3.2 Vector-by-matrix multiplication 128
3.3 Matrix-by-matrix multiplication 130
3.4 Array division 132
3.5 Summary 133
3.6 Examples 134
3.7 Exercises 146
3.8 Where to find more examples and exercises 160

4 Complex numbers 161

4.1 Introduction 161
4.2 The introduction of complex numbers 162
4.3 Operations with complex numbers 163
4.4 Geometric representation 165
4.5 Trigonometric representation 167
4.6 Functions of complex variables 170
4.7 Mapping by functions of complex variables 173
4.8 Conformal mapping 176
4.9 Harmonic motion - phasors 180
4.10 A simple MATLAB program - visualizing a rotating vector . . 184
4.11 Summary 187
4.12 Examples 189
4.13 Exercises 209
4.14 Where to find more examples 214
4.15 Appendix 214
4.15.1 Operations with complex numbers 214
4.15.2 AC circuits - phasors in electrical engineering 214

5 Geometric calculations 219

5.1 Introduction 219
5.2 Rotation of coordinate axes in the plane 220
5.3 Matrix inversion 221
5.4 Programming a function 223
5.5 Euler's angles , 224
5.6 Determinants 228
5.7 Summary 231
5.8 Affine transformations 232
5.9 Inverse affine transformations 237
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5.10 Examples 239

5.11 Exercises 243

6 Solving equations 247

6.1 Systems of linear equations - introduction 247
6.2 Inhomogeneous linear equations 248
6.3 Homogeneous linear equations 252
6.4 MATLAB's solution of linear systems 254
6.5 Overdetermined systems - least-squares solution 257
6.6 Ill-conditioned systems 260
6.7 Polynomial equations - introduction 262
6.8 Finding roots of polynomials in MATLAB 263
6.9 Retrieving polynomial coefficients from roots 264
6.10 Summary 264
6.11 Examples - linear equations 266
6.12 Examples - polynomial equations 287
6.13 Exercises 298
6.14 Appendix - least squares fit 307

7 Programming in MATLAB 311

7.1 Introduction 311
7.2 Conditional branching 311
7.3 WHILE loops 315
7.4 Iterative solution of equations 318
7.5 The Newton-Raphson method 321
7.6 Recursion 328
7.7 A note on complexity 330
7.8 Summary 334
7.9 Examples 336
7.10 Exercises 347
7.11 Appendix - the contractive Lipschitz condition 351

8 External files 353

8.1 Introduction 353
8.2 A log-book of calculations 353
8.3 Reading data from M-files 355
8.4 Linear interpolation 356
8.4.1 Tables with one entry 356
8.4.2 Tables with two entries 359
8.5 Switching to the operating system 362
8.6 Writing output to external files 363
8.7 Additions in MATLAB 4 365
8.8 Summary 365
8.9 Examples 366
8.10 Exercises 372
 CONTENTS ХШ

9 Regression and interpolation 379

9.1 Introduction 379
9.2 Polynomial fit 380
9.3 Polynomial interpolation 383
9.4 Assessing the quality of a regression 386
9.5 Power regression 388
9.6 Exponential regression 391
9.7 Spline interpolation 394
9.8 Summary 397
9.9 Examples 399
9.10 Exercises 414

10 More about plotting 419

10.1 Introduction 419
10.2 Histograms 420
10.3 Polar plots 423
10.4 Three-dimensional plots 425
10.5 Animation 425
10.6 Examples 427
10.7 Exercises 438
10.8 Appendix - the equation of orbits of planets and satellites . . . 441

11 MORE APPLICATIONS 447

11 Numerical integration 449
11.1 Introduction 449
11.2 The trapezoidal rule 451
11.3 Error of integration by the trapezoidal rule 454
11.4 Simpson's rule 458
11.5 Error of integration by Simpson's rule 461
11.6 MATLAB QUAD and QUAD8 functions 463
11.7 Examples 463
11.8 Exercises 473

12 Graph theory 477

12.1 Definitions 477
12.2 Graph of a railway network 480
12.3 Sparse matrix 484
12.4 Exercises 485

13 Dimensional analysis 489

13.1 Introduction 489
13.2 Dimensional analysis 489
13.3 Examples 493
13.4 Summary 505
13.5 Exercises 506
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14 System modelling and simulation 509

14.1 Introduction 509
14.2 Five ways of modelling dynamic systems 510
14.2.1 Transfer functions 510
14.2.2 Zero-pole-gain models 511
14.2.3 Partial fractions 512
14.2.4 State space 513
14.2.5 Cauchy form 514
14.3 Numerical solution of ordinary differential equations 515
14.4 Ordinary differential equations and simulation 518
14.5 Stiff problems 522
14.6 Conclusion 523
14.7 Exercises 523

15 Control 531
15.1 Introduction 531
15.2 Root locus design 532
15.3 Design in the frequency domain 534
15.4 Optimal design 544
15.5 Exercises 547

16 Signal processing 557

16.1 Signals and signal processing 557
16.2 The FILTER function 558
16.3 Calling the filter with initial conditions 564
16.4 Design of digital filters 568
16.4.1 Definitions 568
16.4.2 Defining the frequency characteristics of the filter . . . . 569
16.4.3 The Tustin bilinear transformation 574
16.5 The Discrete Fourier Transform 577
16.6 A short introduction to the DFT 579
16.7 The power spectrum 582
16.8 Trigonometric expansion of a signal 587
16.9 High frequency signals and aliasing 589
16.10 Exercises 594

17 Case studies in mechanical engineering 601

17.1 Bending moment caused by a moving vehicle 601
17.2 One-dimensional heat conduction 605
17.3 Using a sparse matrix 610
17.4 Exercises 613

Answers to selected exercises 615

Bibliography 653
Index 659