Control Engineering -15ME73 2018

MODULE - 3

TRANSIENT AND STEADY STATE RESPONSE ANALYSIS

LESSON STRUCTURE:
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Time Response
3.3. Steady State Response
3.4. Routh’s-Hurwitz Criterion
3.5. Definition of root loci
3.6. Analysis using root locus plots
3.7. General rules for constructing root loci

OBJECTIVES:
 To analyse stability in complex domain and frequency domain systems.
 To educate static and transient behavior of a system.
 To demonstrate stability of the various control systems by applying Routh’s stability criterion.
 To study stability by using Root locus plots.

3.1. Introduction:
Time is used as an independent variable in most of the control systems. It is important to
analyse the response given by the system for the applied excitation, which is function of time.
Analysis of response means to see the variation of output with respect to time. The output behavior
with respect to time should be within these specified limits to have satisfactory performance of the
systems. The stability analysis lies in the time response analysis that is when the system is stable
output is finite
The system stability, system accuracy and complete evaluation is based on the time response
analysis on corresponding results.

3.2. Time Response:

The response given by the system which is function of the time, to the applied excitation is called
time response of a control system.
Practically, output of the system takes some finite time to reach to its final value. This time varies
from system to system and is dependent on different factors. The factors like friction mass or inertia of
moving elements some nonlinearities present etc. Example: Measuring instruments like Voltmeter,
Ammeter.

Classification:
The time response of a control system is divided into two parts.

1 Transient response ct(t)

2 Steady state response css(t)

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. . . c(t)=ct(t) +cSS(t)
Where c(t)= Time Response
Total Response=Zero State Response +Zero Input Response.

3.3. Steady State Response:

It is defined the part of the response which remains after complete transient response
vanishes from the system output.
. i,e, Lim ct(t)=css(t)
t 

The time domain analysis essentially involves the evaluation of the transient and
Steady state response of the control system.
For the analysis point of view, the signals, which are most commonly used as
reference inputs, are defined as standard test inputs.

The performance of a system can be evaluated with respect to these test signals.
Based on the information obtained the design of control system is carried out. The
commonly used test signals are
1. Step Input signals.
2. Ramp Input Signals.
3. Parabolic Input Signals.
4. Impulse input signal.

1. Step input signal (position function)

It is the sudden application of the input at a specified time as usual in the figure or instant any us
change in the reference input
Example :-
a. If the input is an angular position of a mechanical shaft a step input represent the sudden
rotation of a shaft.
b. Switching on a constant voltage in an electrical circuit.
c. Sudden opening or closing a valve.

The step is a signal who‘s value changes from 1 value (usually 0) to another level A in Zero
time.
In the Laplace Transform form R(s) = A / S
Mathematically r(t) = u(t)
= 1 for t > 0
= 0 for t < 0
2. Ramp Input Signal (Velocity Functions):
It is constant rate of change in input that is gradual application of input as shown in fig (2 b).
r(t)

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Ex:- Altitude Control of a Missile

The ramp is a signal, which starts at a value of zero and increases linearly with time.
Mathematically r (t) = At for t ≥ 0
= 0 for t≤ 0.
In LT form R(S) = A
S2
If A=1, it is called Unit Ramp Input

Parabolic Input Signal (Acceleration function):

 The input which is one degree faster than a ramp type of input as shown in fig (2 c) or it is an
integral of a ramp.
 Mathematically a parabolic signal of magnitude

Impulse Input Signal :

It is the input applied instantaneously (for short duration of time ) of very high amplitude as
shown in fig 2(d)
Eg: Sudden shocks i e, HV due lightening or short circuit.
It is the pulse whose magnitude is infinite while its width tends to zero.

Area of impulse = Its magnitude

If area is unity, it is called Unit Impulse Input denoted as (t)
Mathematically it can be expressed as
r(t) = A for t = 0

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= 0 for t ≠ 0
In LT form R(S) = 1 if A = 1

3.4. Routh’s-Hurwitz Criterion

E.J. Routh (1877) developed a method for determining whether or not an equation has roots
with + ve real parts without actually solving for the roots.
A necessary condition for the system to be STABLE is that the real parts of the roots of the
characteristic equation have - ve real parts. This insures that the impulse response will decay
exponentially with time.
If the system has some roots with real parts equal to zero, but none with +ve real parts the
system is said to be MARGINALLY STABLE.
It determines the poles of a characteristic equation with respect to the left and the right half
of the S-plane without solving the equation.
The roots of this characteristic equation represent the closed loop poles. The stability of the
system depends on these poles. The necessary, but not sufficient conditions for the system having no
roots in the right half S-Plane are listed below.
i. All the co-efficients of the polynomial must have the same sign.
ii. All powers of S, must present in descending order.
iii. The above conditions are not sufficient.
In a vast majority of practical systems. The following statements on stability are quite useful.

i. If all the roots of the characteristic equation have –ve real parts the system is
STABLE.
ii. If any root of the characteristic equation has a +ve real part or if there is a repeated root on
the j -axis, the system is unstable.
iii. If condition (i) is satisfied except for the presence of one or more non repeated roots on the j -
axis the system is limitedly STABLE

In this instance the impulse response does not decay to zero although it is bounded.
Additionally certain inputs will produce outputs. Therefore marginally stable systems are
UNSTABLE.
The Routh Stability criterion is a method for determining system stability that can be applied
to an nth order characteristic equation of the form
sn + an-1 sn-1 + an-2 sn-2 + an-3 sn-3 +…………. a1 s1 + a0 = 0
The criterion is applied through the use of a Routh Array (Routh table) Defined as follows:

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The ROUTH STABILITY CRITERION is stated as follows,

All the terms in the first column of Routh’s Array should have same sign, and there should
not be any change of sign.
This is a necessary and sufficient condition for the system to be stable . On the other hand any change
of sign in the first column of Routh’s Array indicates,

i. The System is Unstable, and

ii. The Number of changes of sign gives the number of roots lying in the right half of S-Plane

Example : find the stability of the system using Routh’s criteria. For the equation
3S4+10S3+5S2+5S+2=0

Here two roots are +ve (2 changes of sign) and hence the system is unstable.

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3.5. Definition of root loci

The root locus of a feedback system is the graphical representation in the complex s-
plane of the possible locations of its closed-loop poles for varying values of a certain system
parameter. The points that are part of the root locus satisfy the angle condition. The value of
the parameter for a certain point of the root locus can be obtained using the magnitude
condition.
In root locus technique in control system we will evaluate the position of the roots,
their locus of movement and associated information. These information will be used to
comment upon the system performance.

3.6. Analysis using root locus plots.

A designer can determine whether his design for a control system meets the specifications if
he knows the desired time response of the controlled variable. By deriving the differential
equations for the control system and solving them, an accurate solution of the system's
performance can be obtained, but this approach is not feasible for other than simple systems.
It is not easy to determine from this solution just what parameters in the system should be
changed to improve the response. A designer wishes to be able to predict the performance by
an analysis that does not require the actual solution of the differential equations.

The first thing that a designer wants to know about a given system is whether or not it is
stable. This can be determined by examining the roots obtained from the characteristic
equation

(3.1)

of the closed loop. The work involved in determining the roots of this equation can be
avoided by applying the Hurwitz or Routh criterion. Determining in this way whether the
system is stable or unstable does not satisfy the designer, because it does not indicate the
degree of stability of the system, i.e., the amount of overshoot and the settling time of the
controlled variable for a step input. Not only must the system be stable, but the overshoot
must be maintained within prescribed bounds and transients must die out in a sufficiently
short time.

The root-locus method described in this section not only indicates whether a system is stable
or unstable but, for a stable system, also shows the degree of stability. The root locus is a plot
of the roots of the characteristic equation of the closed loop as a function of the gain. This
graphical approach yields a clear indication of the effect of gain adjustment with relatively
small effort.

With this method one determines the closed-loop poles in the plane - these are the roots of
Eq.(5.1) - by using the known distribution of the poles and zeros of the open-loop transfer

function . If for instance a parameter is varied, the roots of the characteristic equation
will move on certain curves in the plane as shown by the example in Figure 3.1. On these
curves lie all

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Figure 3.1: Plot of all roots of the characteristic equation for .

Values of are red and underlined.
possible roots of the characteristic equation for all values of the varied parameter from zero to
infinity. These curves are defined as the root-locus plot of the closed loop. Once this plot is
obtained, the roots that best fit the system performance specifications can be selected.
Corresponding to the selected roots there is a required value of the parameter which can be
determined from the plot. When the roots have been selected, the time response can be
obtained. Since the process of finding the root locus by calculating the roots for various
values of a parameter becomes tedious, a simpler method of obtaining the root locus is
desired. The graphical method for determining the root-locus plot is shown in the following.

An open-loop transfer function with poles at the origin of the plane is often described by

(3.2)

where is the gain of the open loop. In order to represent this transfer function in terms of
the open-loop poles and zeros it is rewritten as

(3.3)
or

(3.4)

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with and . The relationship between the factor and the open-loop gain
is

(3.5)

The characteristic equation of the closed loop using Eq. (5.3) is

(3.6)
or

(3.7)

All complex numbers , which fulfil this condition for , represent the
root locus.

From the above it can be concluded that the magnitude of must always be unity and its
phase angle must be an odd multiple of . Consequently, the following two conditions are

formalised for the root locus for all positive values of from zero to infinity:

a)
Magnitude condition:

(3.8)

b)
Angle condition

(3.9)
for

In a similar manner, the conditions for negative values of ( ) can be

determined. The magnitude conditions is the same, but the angle must satisfy the
c)
Angle condition

(3.10)
for

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Apparently the angle condition is independent of . All points of the plane that fulfil the

angle condition are the loci of the poles of the closed loop by varying . The calibration of

the curves by the values of is obtained by the magnitude condition according to Eq. 8(3.8).
Based upon this interpretation of the conditions the root locus can constructed in a
graphical/numerical way.

Once the open-loop transfer function has been determined and put into the proper form,
the poles and zeros of this function are plotted in the plane.

 The plot of the locus of the closed loop poles as a function of the open loop gain K,
 when K is varied from 0 to +00.
  When system gain K is varied from 0 to +oo, the locus is called direct root locus. 
  When system gain K is varied from -oo to 0, the locus is called as inverse root locus. 
  The root locus is always symmetrical about the real axis i.e. x-axis. 
 The number of separate branches of the root locus equals either the number of open

loop poles are number of open-loop zeros whichever is greater.
 A section of root locus lies on the real axis if the total number of open-loop poles and

zeros to the right of the section is odd.
 If the root locus intersects the imaginary axis then the point of intersection are
conjugate. From the open loop complex pole the root locus departs making an angle
 with the horizontal line. 
  The root locus starts from open-loop poles.
  The root locus terminates either on open loop zero or infinity. 
 The number of branches of roots locus are:

N if P>Z
and M if P<Z
where N —> No. of poles ‗P‘
M —> No. of zeros ‗Z‘

 Centroid is the centre of asymptotes. It is given by (an)








 Angle of asymptotes is denoted by ‗p

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 Angle of departure is. tangent to root locus at complex pole 

Based on the pole and zero distributions of an open-loop system the stability of the closed-
loop system can be discussed as a function of one scalar parameter. The root-locus method
shown in this module is a technique that can be used as a tool to design control systems. The
basic ideas and its relevancy to control system design are introduced and illustrated. Ten
general rules for constructing root loci for positive and negative gain are shortly presented
such that they can be easily applied. This is demonstrated by some discussed examples, by a
table with sixteen examples and by a comprehensive design of a closed-loop system of higher
order.

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Example Problems:

Q.1. Consider the example

with , and . The poles of the closed-loop transfer function

are the roots and of the characteristic equation

and are given by

As and it can be seen that for the poles of the closed loop

transfer function are identical with those of the open-loop transfer function . For other

values the following two cases are considered:

a)

: Both roots and are real and lie on the real axis in the range of
and ;
b)

: The roots and are conjugate complex with the real part ,

which does not depend on , and the imaginary part Im .

The curve has two branches as shown in Figure 6.2.

Figure 5.2: Root locus of a simple second-order system

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At is the breakaway point of the two branches. Checking the angle

condition the condition

must be valid. The complex numbers and have the angles and and the

magnitudes and . The triangle ( ) in Figure 6.2 yields the angle

condition. Evaluating the magnitude condition according to Eq. (6.8)

one obtains the value on the root locus. E.g. for the gain of the open loop is

The value of at the breakaway point is

Table 5.1 shows further examples of some 1st- and 2nd-order systems.
Table 5.1: Root loci of 1st- and 2nd-order systems

root locus root locus

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3.7. General rules for constructing root loci

To facilitate the application of the root-locus method for systems of higher order than 2nd,
rules can be established. These rules are based upon the interpretation of the angle condition
and the analysis of the characteristic equation. The rules presented aid in obtaining the root
locus by expediting the manual plotting of the locus. But for automatic plotting using a
computer these rules provide checkpoints to ensure that the solution is correct.

Though the angle and magnitude conditions can also be applied to systems having dead time,
in the following we restrict to the case of the open-loop rational transfer functions according
to Eq. (3.3)

(3.11)

or

(3.12)

As this transfer function can be written in terms of poles and zeros and ( ;

) can be represented by their magnitudes and angles

or

(3.13)

From Eq. (3.8) the magnitude condition

(3.14)

and from Eq. (3.9) the angle condition

(3.15)
for

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follows. Here and denote the angles of the complex values and ,
respectively. All angles are considered positive, measured in the counterclockwise sense. If
for each point the sum of these angles in the plane is calculated, just those particular points
that fulfil the condition in Eq. (3.15) are points on the root locus. This principle of
constructing a root-locus curve - as shown in Figure 3.3 - is mostly used for automatic root-
locus plotting.

Figure 3.3: Pole-zero diagram for construction of the root locus

In the following the most important rules for the construction of root loci for are listed:

Rule 1 Symmetry
As all roots are either real or complex conjugate pairs so that the root locus is
symmetrical to the real axis.
Rule 2 Number of branches
The number of branches of the root locus is equal to the number of poles of the
open-loop transfer function.
Rule 3 Locus start and end points
The locus starting points ( ) are at the open-loop poles and the locus ending

points ( ) are at the open-loop zeros. branches end at infinity. The

number of starting branches from a pole and ending branches at a zero is equal to the
multiplicity of the poles and zeros, respectively. A point at infinity is considered as an

equivalent zero of multiplicity equal to .

Rule 4 Real axis locus
If the total number of poles and zeros to the right of a point on the real axis is odd,
this point lies on the locus.
Rule 5 Asymptotes
There are asymptotes of the root locus with a slope of

(3.16)

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For and 4 one obtains the asymptote configurations as shown in

Figure 3.4.

Figure 5.4: Asymptote configurations of the root locus

Rule 6 Real axis intercept of the asymptotes

The real axis crossing of the asymptotes is at

(3.17)

Rule 7 Breakaway and break-in points on the real axis

At least one breakaway or break-in point exists if a branch of the root

locus is on the real axis between two poles or zeros, respectively. Conditions to find
such real points are based on the fact that they represent multiple real roots. In
addition to the characteristic equation for multiple roots the condition

(3.18)

must be fulfilled, which is equivalent to

(3.19)

for . If there are no poles or zeros, the corresponding sum is zero.

Rule 8 Complex pole/zero angle of departure/entry
The angle of departure of pairs of poles with multiplicity is

(3.20)

and the angle of entry of the pairs of zeros with multiplicity

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(3.21)

Rule 9 Root-locus calibration

The labels of the values of can be determined by using

(3.22)

For the denominator is equal to one.

Rule 10 Asymptotic stability
The closed loop system is asymptotically stable for all values of for which the
locus lies in the left-half plane. From the imaginary-axis crossing points the critical
values can be determined.

The rules shown above are for positive values of . According to the angle condition of

Eq. (5.10) for negative values of some rules have to be modified. In the following these
rules are numbered as above but labelled by a *.

Rule 3* Locus start and end points

The locus starting points ( ) are at the open-loop poles and the locus ending

points ( ) are at the open-loop zeros. branches end at infinity. The

number of starting branches from a pole and ending branches at a zero is equal to the
multiplicity of the poles and zeros, respectively. A point at infinity is considered as an
equivalent zero of multiplicity equal to .
Rule 4* Real axis locus
If the total number of poles and zeros to the right of a point on the real axis is even
including zero, this point lies on the locus.
Rule 5* Asymptotes
There are asymptotes of the root locus with a slope of

(3.23)

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Rule 8* Complex pole/zero angle of departure/entry

The angle of departure of pairs of poles with multiplicity is

(3.24)

and the angle of entry of the pairs of zeros with multiplicity

(3.25)

The root-locus method can also be applied for other cases than varying . This is possible as

long as can be rewritten such that the angle condition according to Eq. (3.15) and the
rules given above can be applied. This will be demonstrated in the following two examples.

Q.2. Given the closed-loop characteristic equation

the root locus for varying the parameter is required. The characteristic equation is therefore
rewritten as

This form then correspondents to the standard form

to which the rules can be applied.

Q.3.Given the closed-loop characteristic equation

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it is required to find the effect of the parameter on the position of the closed-loop poles. The
equation is rewritten into the desired form

Using the rules 1 to 10 one can easily predict the geometrical form of the root locus based on
the distribution of the open-loop poles and zeros. Table 3.2 shows some typical distributions
of open-loop poles and zeros and their root loci.

Table 3.2: Typical distributions of open-loop poles and zeros and the root loci

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For the qualitative assessment of the root locus one can use a physical analogy. If all open-
loop poles are substituted by a negative electrical charge and all zeros by a commensurate
positive one and if a massless negative charged particle is put onto a point of the root locus, a
movement is observed. The path that the particle takes because of the interplay between the
repulsion of the poles and the attraction of the zeros lies just on the root locus. Comparing the
root locus examples 3 and 9 of Table 3.2 the 'repulsive' effect of the additional pole can be
clearly seen.

The systematic application of the rules from section 3.2 for the construction of a root locus is
shown in the following non-trivial example for the open-loop transfer function

(3.26)

The degree of the numerator polynomial is . This means that the transfer function has
one zero ( ). The degree of the denominator polynomial is and we have the

four poles ( , , , 2). First the poles (x) and the

zeros (o) of the open loop are drawn on the plane as shown in Figure 3.5. According to rule
3 these poles are just

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Figure 3.5: Root locus of . Values of are in red and

underlined.

those points of the root locus where and the zeros where . We have

branches that go to infinity and the asymptotes of these three branches are lines
which intercept the real axis according to rule 6. From Eq. (3.17) the crossing is at

(3.27)

and the slopes of the asymptotes are according to Eq. (3.16)

(3.28)

i.e.

The asymptotes are shown in Figure 3.5 as blue lines. Using Rule 4 it can be checked which
points on the real axis are points on the root locus. The points with and
belong to the root locus, because to the right of them the number of poles and zeros is
odd. According to rule 7 breakaway and break-in points can only occur pairwise on the real
axis to the left of -2. These points are real solutions of the Eq. (3.19). Here we have

(3.29)

or

This equation has the solutions , and . The real

roots and are the positions of the breakaway and the break-in point.

The angle of departure of the root locus from the complex pole at can be
determined from Figure 3.6 according to Eq. (3.20):
(3.30)

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Figure 5.6: Calculating the angle of departure of the complex pole

With this specifications the root locus can be sketched. Using rule 9 the value of can be
determined for some selected points. The value at the intersection with the imaginary axis is

OUTCOMES:
At the end of the module, the students are able to:
 Obtain the time response and steady-state error of the system.
 Knowledge about improvement of static and transient behaviour of a system.
 Determine stability of the various control systems by applying Routh’s stability
criterion.
 Construct root loci from open loop transfer functions of control systems and Analyze
the behaviour of roots with system gain.
 Assess the stability of closed loop systems by means of the root location in s-plane and
their effects on system performance.

SELF-TEST QUESTIONS:
1. Obtain an expression for time response of the first order system subject to step input.
2. Define
1) Time response.
2) Transient response.
3) Steady state response.
4) Steady state error.
3. Determine the stability of the system whose characteristic equation is given by
S4+6S3+23S2+40S+50=0, Using Routh's criterion.
4. Sketch the root locus for G(S)H(S)= K show all details on it.
S(S+2)(S+4)
5. Sketch the root locus for G(S)H(S)= 10K show all details on it.
S(S+2)(S+6)

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6. Sketch the root locus for G(S)H(S)= K(S+1) show all details on it.
S(S+2)(S+4)

FURTHER READING:
1. Control engineering, Swarnakiran S, Sunstar publisher, 2018.
2. Feedback Control System, Schaum’s series. 2001.

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