Chapter 4

Transient Response Analysis

•Introduction
•Goals
•The Response
•The System
•Problems

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 Time Response Behavior:
Time behavior of a system is important. When you design a system, the time
behavior may well be the most important aspect of its' behavior. Points you
might worry about include the following.

•How quickly a system responds is important. If you have a control system

that's controlling a temperature, how long it takes the temperature to reach a
new steady state is important.
•Say you're trying to control a temperature, and you want the temperature to be
200o C. If the temperature goes to 250o C before it settles out, you'll want to
know that. Control systems designers worry about overshoot and how close a
system comes to instability.
•If you're trying to control speed of an automobile at 55mph and the speed
keeps varying between 50mph and 60mph, your design isn't very good.
Oscillations in a system are not usually desirable
•If you are trying to control any variable, you want to control it accurately, so
you will need to be able to predict the steady state in a system.
These examples are intended to show you that the ability to predict details of
how a system responds is important when you design systems. These are but
a few of many different aspects of time behavior of a system that are important
in control system design. The examples above really are talking about aspects
like:
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 The examples above really are talking about aspects like:

•Speed of response
•Relative stability of the system
•Stability of the system

When you design systems or circuits you often need to worry about these
aspects of the system's time behavior. Before you build your system, you want
to know how it will perform. You need to make predictions. In this lesson, we
will begin to examine how it is possible to predict aspects of the time behavior
of a system. We'll do that by starting with a first order system and examining
the parameters of that kind of system that control their time behavior. We'll do
that in ways that will let us generalize concepts to more complex systems - and
there are lots of more complex systems you'll be worrying about. With that
under your belt, you will have the knowledge you need to predict how first order
systems behave. That will set the stage for learning about more complex
systems

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Goals For This Lesson

There are a number of goals for you in this lesson.

 First, if you have a first order system, you need to be able to
predict and understand how it responds to an input, so you
need to be able to do this.
 Given a first order system, Determine the impulse and step
response of the system.
 Secondly, you may go into a lab and measure a system, and if
it is first order, you need to be able to do this.
 Given the step response of a first order system,
 Determine the parameters - DC gain and time constant of the
system.

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 The System - And Some Examples

The simplest possible dynamic system is one which satisfies a first

order, linear, differential equation. Here's a generic form of the
differential equation. A block diagram representation of the system is
given at the right. dx/dt + x(t) = Gdcu(t)
x(t) = Response of the System,
u(t) = Input to the System,
 = The System Time Constant,
Gdc = The DC Gain of the System.
The parameters you find in a first order system determine aspects of
various kinds of responses. Whether we are talking about impulse
response, step response or response to other inputs, we will still find the
following relations.
, the time constant, will determine how quickly the system moves toward
steady state.
•Gdc, the DC gain of the system, will determine the size of steady state
response when the input settles out to a constant value.
You also need to note that a system that satisfies the differential
equation above has a transfer function of the form:
G1(s) = X(s)/U(s) = Gdc/(s +1)
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 Some Examples of First Order Systems

The differential equation describes many different systems of many

different types. We can look at some of the systems whose behavior is
described by a first order differential equation like the one above.
The parameters you find in a first order system determine aspects of
various kinds of responses. Whether we are talking about impulse response,
step response or response to other inputs, we will still have the following
quantities and system parameters.
x(t) = Response of the System,
u(t) = Input to the System,
t = The System Time Constant,
Gdc = The DC Gain of the System.Every system will have an input which we
can call u(t), and a response we will denote by x(t). Each system will also have
a time constand and a DC gain.
t, the time constant, will determine how quickly the system moves toward
steady state.
Gdc, the DC gain of the system, will determine the size of steady state
response when the input settles out to a constant value.

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A Second Order System
Here's a more complex response. This is also the response to a unit step
input. There are interesting aspects to this response also.

The decaying oscillations tell you that this is at least a second order system. There is
at least one pair of complex - underdamped - poles. Danger - there could be more to
this system. It could be more than second order, but it surely is not first order.
If this is a second order system, then you need to find the following:
DC gain, Gdc,
The damping ratio z,
The undamped natural frequency, wn.
Thus, if you can calculate the DC gain, damping ratio and natural frequency you
have measured the transfer function. The problem is that you need to get information
from the step response - like the one shown above - that will let you calculate what
you need. There are some relationships that will help you.
The percent overshoot is related to the damping ratio. What's more, the relationship
is fairly direct and does not involve the natural frequency or the DC gain.
The frequency of the decaying oscillations is related to the natural frequency. The
relationship also involves the damping ratio so you need to be careful here.
DC gain is an easy one. Measure steady state, and divide steady state by the input.

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 pdfMachine
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