42 Chapter 3 Laplace Transforms

Table 3.1 Laplace Transforms for Various Time-Domain Functions«

f(t) F(s)
1. 3(t) (unit impulse) 1
1
2. S(t) (unit step)
s
1
3. t (ramp)
?
(n - 1)!

5. e -bt 1
s + b
6. _!_e -liT 1
T TS +1
tn-le-bt 1
7. (n _ 1)! (n > 0) (s + b)n
8. 1 f-le-th 1
Tn(n - 1)!

9 1 (e-b2t _ e-b1~
. bl - b2 (s + b1)(s + b2)
1_
10. __ (e-tiT1 _ e-tiT2) 1
Tl- T2 (TIS + 1)(T2S + 1)
b3 - b1 b3 - b2 -b 2t s + b3
11. e-blt + b2 e
b2 - b1 b1 - (s + b1)(s + b2)

12. _1TI-T3
---e-t!Tl + _1T2-T3
---e-tiT2 T3S +1
Tl Tl - T2 T2 T2 - Tl

13. 1- e-th
s(Ts + 1)
14. sin wt

s
15. cos wt
s2 + 00 2
w cos c.!> + s sin c.!>
16. sin( wt + c.!>)
? + ().)2
().)
17. e-bt sin wt

18. e-btcoswt
} b, w real

19.
T
h 1- \?
e-,tiT sin(~ tiT)

(0 ,; 1~1<1)
1 1
20. 1 + ---(Tle-1/Tl - T2e-t/T2)
T2 - Tt
(Tl of- T2)

e-,tiT sin[~ tiT

1 1
21. 1 - + l)i]
~
~
ljJ = tan- 1 ~ , (0,; 1~1<1)

22. 1- e-,tiT[cos(~tiT) + hsin(~tiT)] 1

1 - ~2
 3.1 The Laplace Transform of Representative Functions 43

Table 3.1 (Continued)

f(t) F(s)

23. 1 + T} - T1 e-t/Tl + T} - T2 e-tfTz

T1 - T2 T2 - T1

(T1 -:f- T2)

df
24. dt sF(s)- f(O)
dnf
25. den snF(s) - sn- 1f(O) - ~- 2JCll(o) - ...
- sf<n-2)(0) - t<n-1)(0)

26. f(t - t0 )S(t - t0 ) e-t(}SF(s)

"Note thatf(t) and F(s) are defined fort;;: 0 only.

equations. For a negative exponential, e-bt, with b > 0, Table 3.1 lists some important Laplace transform
pairs that occur in the solution of linear differential
:E(e-b~ = 1oo e-bte-stdt = 1oo e-(b+s)tdt (3-15) equations. For a more extensive list of transforms, see
Dyke (1999).
00 1 Note that in all the transform cases derived above,
= _1_[ -e -(b+s)t] I (3-16) F(s) is a ratio of polynomials in s, that is, a rational
b +s 0 s+b form. There are some important cases when nonpoly-
The Laplace transform for b < 0 is unbounded if s < b; nomial (nonrational) forms occur. One such case is
therefore, the real part of s must be restricted to be discussed next.
larger than -b for the integral to be finite. This condi-
tion is satisfied for all problems we consider in this book. The Rectangular Pulse Function. An illustration of
the rectangular pulse is shown in Fig. 3.1. The pulse has
Trigonometric Functions. In modeling processes and
height hand width tw. This type of signal might be used
in studying control systems, there are many other
to depict the opening and closing of a valve regulating
important time functions, such as the trigonometric
flow into a tank. The flow rate would be held at h for a
functions, cos wt and sin wt, where w is the frequency in
duration of tw units of time. The area under the curve
radians per unit time. The Laplace transform of cos wt
in Fig. 3.1 could be interpreted as the amount of mater-
or sin wt can be calculated using integration by parts.
ial delivered to the tank ( = htw)· Mathematically, the
An alternative method is to use the Euler identity1
functionf(t) is defined as

u
ejwt + e-jwt
cos wt = 2 , j ~ v'="1 (3-17)

ftt)= (3-20)
and to apply (3-1). Because the Laplace transform of a
sum of two functions is the sum of the Laplace transforms,
1 . 1 .
:£(cos wt) = z:l(e 1"' 1) + z:l(e - 1"'1) (3-18)
Using Eq. 3-16 gives
:£(cos wt) = !(-
2
1-.- + - 1-.-)
S - )W + S )W
h 1--------,

= l_(s + jw + s- jw) = s (3-19)

2 s 2 + w2 i + w2
f(t)
Note that the use of imaginary variables above was
merely a device to avoid integration by parts; imagi-
nary numbers do not appear in the final result. To find
:£(sin wt), we can use a similar approach.
QOL___________L __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _
tw
Time. t
1The symbol j, rather than i, is traditionally used for v'=T in the
control engineering literature. Figure 3.1 The rectangular pulse function.