Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Automation Lab

Experiment 1
Linear Systems
Protocol
Matlab based Linear System Analysis

Version 1.1 December 5, 2016

submitted: December 5, 2016

1: Peter Berty Fayez Eskander

213644
EEIT

2: Hamed Sepehrnia
213691
EEIT

3: Syed Adil Muddassir Ahsan

213804
EEIT

4: Ventakesh Uppala
213961
EEIT
Contents

1 Preparation 4

2 Simulation 8
2.1 Task 4.1 - Step Response of 1st Order Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Task 4.2 - Step Response of Integrator Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Task 4.3 - Step Response of 2nd Order System without Oscillations . . . . 11
2.4 Task 4.4 - Step Response of 2nd Order System with Oscillations . . . . . . 12
2.5 Task 4.5 - Frequency Response of 1st Order Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3 References 15

4 Appendix 16

1
List of Figures

2.1 Comparison of step responses of the specified 1st order systems. . . . . . . 8

2.2 Comparison of step responses of the specified integrator elements. . . . . . 10
2.3 Step response of 2nd order system without oscillations. . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4 Step response of 2nd order system without oscillations. . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 Response of 1st order system to sinusoidal excitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2
List of Tables

2.1 Step response parameter estimates for 1st order systems. . . . . . . . . . . 8

2.2 Step response parameter estimates for integrator elements. . . . . . . . . . 10

3
1 Preparation

Question 1 - Step Response and Unit Step

The step response of a systems refers to the manner in which the output of a system, which
may be a particular process variable, changes upon the application of a step change in an
input to the system, which may be the manipulated variable. Thus, the step response can
be thought of as the behaviour of the system output in response to an event during which
the input to the system changes abruptly from one fixed level to another.
The term unit step refers to a change in input of magnitude unity from zero initial
conditions. Thus the unit step response refers to the change in output of the system when
the input to the system changes by 1 unit starting from an unexcited state.

Question 2 - Frequency Response

The frequency response of a system refers to the manner in which the system responds
to sinusoidal frequencies. Essentially, complex exponential functions are eigen vectors
of LTI systems. Thus, when an LTI system acts upon complex exponential functions,
the output of the system is the same complex exponential with a possible phase shift
and amplitude modification which is dependent upon the eigen value of the system at a
particular frequency.
The frequency response is thus obtained by exciting an LTI system with a sinusoidal
input and the frequency is varied from very low values (approaching DC) to very high
values. The system responds with a particular phase shift and a particular amplitude
modification in its output.
The transfer function of an LTI system refers to the Laplace transform of the systems
impulse response. It is, equivalently, the ratio of the Laplace transform of the system
output to the Laplace transform of the system input. The Laplace transform converts
a function of time t into a function of complex frequency with real and imaginary parts
s = + j. The real part corresponds to an exponential decay or growth factor and
the imaginary part corresponds to an oscillatory factor. The frequency response can be
obtained by setting the real part to zero and focusing solely on the imaginary axis. Thus
the frequency response is obtained by varying the frequency of excitation of the system
input sinusoid over an approximate and feasible range of the imaginary axis.

Question 3 - Types of Linear Systems

Linear systems are ones which satisfy the principles of homogeneity and superposition. In
the context of control systems, operations of scaling, differentiation and integration and

4
 1 Preparation

their linear combinations yield linear systems of various types. The remaining requested
information has been provided in the appendix.

Question 4 - Order of Dynamical Systems

The order of a dynamical system refers to the number of linearly independent energy
storage elements in the system. Equivalently, it is the number of linear independent
differential equations that can be used to represent the system. It can also be considered
the highest derivative of the output variable of the system in the differential equation.
An equivalent interpretation is the number of poles that a system has. This can be
identified by looking at transfer function in pole-zero format. The highest power of s in the
transfer function format refers to the same assuming there are no pole-zero cancellations.
It can thus be identified by looking at the highest derivative of the output variable in the
differential equation. It can be estimated from the frequency response by either looking at
the magnitude curve or at the phase curve. Essentially, a system without poles or zeros
multiplies the input sinusoid by a constant factor without imparting any phase shift. Thus
such a system would have a phase shift of 0 and a horizontal line in the bode plot. Each
pole imparts a net phase shift of 90 and a slope of 20dB/decade to the magnitude
curve. Each zero imparts a net phase shift of +90 and a slope of +20dB/decade. Thus
the relative order of a system can be identified by looking at the final phase shift and
the roll-off rate a decade after the last poles or zeros break-off frequency. For the actual
order of the system, one would have to count the number of times the magnitude curve a
decay of 20dB/decade while ignoring the number of times it rises by +20dB/decade.

Question 5 - Interconnection of Linear Systems

Linear systems may be interconnected in series or in parallel with their signals passing
through pick-off points or summation junctions. They can, using these components, be
connected in cascade form, parallel form or feedback form. Details are provided in the
appendix.

Question 6 - Step Response of 1st Order and 2nd Order Systems

The answer is provided in the appendix.

Question 7 - Parameter Estimation for Specified System Types

A first order system may be represented by three parameters, dead time Td , time constant
T and process gain K. The process gain, in the case of a unit step input, is the value of
the process output. The dead time can be estimated by looking at the plot for the time
after which the response starts to change. The time constant can be estimated by looking
at the step response plot to identify the time at which the system output attains 63% of
its steady state value. The systems model is given by as follows:

5
 1 Preparation

K
G(s) = eTd s
Ts + 1

Systems of order 2 with an S-shaped response curve characteristic of overdamped or

critically damped second order systems, can be approximated as 1st order systems. An
efficient methodology for calculating the 1st order approximation parameters for such
systems is the Two-Point Method according to which a step input is provided to the system
and from the step response, one identifies t28% and t63% , which denote the times at which
the unit step response rises to 28% and 63% of its steady state value respectively. The
dead time and process time constant can then be calculated using the following relations:

3
T = (t63% t28% )
2
Td = t63% T

For higher order systems with an S-shaped response, an n-th order system approximation
can be made with the following representation with K denoting the system gain and the
T denoting the time constant:

K
G(s) =
(T s + 1)n

Let T90% and T10% denote the times taken by the unit step response to rise to 90% and
10% of its steady state value respectively. These values can be determined from the step
response of the system. The ratio of these values then can be used to determined an
approximation of the system order using the reference table. The system order can then
in turn, be used to calculate the system time constant using the same reference table.
The integrator time is generally defined as the time taken by the integrator to generate
a response equal to the proportional component if they were part of a dependent-gain
controller. Thus, the integral time is the inverse of the integrator gain. This value can
be identified by provided a step change to the integrator. This will cause the integrator
output to rise at a fixed rate after a transient period during which its slop changes to its
steady state slope. The integrator response can then be modeled as being defined by a
gain and a dead time. The dead time can be determined by drawing an asymptote along
the the curve once it has acquired its steady state slope. The intercept on the time axis
can then be be approximated as the dead time. The integral time is the reciprocal of the
integrator gain KI which, in turn, is the ratio of the slope of the response curve and the
amplitude of the input step change.

6
 1 Preparation

The systems model and parameters are specified as follows with PV and MV denoting
process variable and manipulated variable respectively:

1 Td s
G(s) = e
TI s
P V
KI =
t M V
1
TI =
KI

Question 8 - Control Structure

Answer provided in appendix.

Question 9 - Estimating Damping and Time Constant from Overshoot and Peak
Time
The relevant parameters can be calculated using the following relations:

1
D=q
1 + ( ln (%OS/100)

)2

wn =
Tp 1 D2
1
Tn =
wn

7
2 Simulation

In this section, the lab tasks have been simulated using Matlab.

2.1 Task 4.1 - Step Response of 1st Order Systems

The step responses are shown in Fig. 2.1.

Figure 2.1: Comparison of step responses of the specified 1st order systems.

The estimated values of T and K from the plot are as follows:

Table 2.1: Step response parameter estimates for 1st order systems.
System K T Kest Test
a 1 0.1 1 0.1012
b 1 0.5 1 0.51
c 0.5 0.1 0.5 0.1012

The time constant T determines the response time of the system as it is the time taken
by the system to attain 63% of its steady state value. A system settles to 99% of its
steady state value after a period of approximately 5 time constants. Thus, as the time
constant increases, the system will take a longer time to attain steady state. For the unit
step responses, the time constants affect the rise time and the settling time of the system
without influencing the steady state values.

8
 2 Simulation

The gain K is the ratio of change in output to the change in input of a system. A large
value of K implies that a small change in input leads to a large change in output whereas
a small value of K implies that large changes in input result in small changes in output.
For unit step responses, variation in K translate directly into the steady state values of
the output responses. It does not affect the settling time or the rise time.

9
 2 Simulation

2.2 Task 4.2 - Step Response of Integrator Elements

The step responses are shown in Fig. 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Comparison of step responses of the specified integrator elements.

The estimated values of TI from the plot are as follows:

Table 2.2: Step response parameter estimates for integrator elements.

System TI TIest
a 0.1 0.1
b 1 1

The integral time TI determines the time required for the integrator element output to
generate an output that would be equivalent to that of a proportional element if the two
were in a dependent gain configuration in a controller. Thus, large values of TI imply a
slow integrator response and small values of TI translate into a fast integrator response as
evident by the slopes of the response curves of the two systems.

10
 2 Simulation

2.3 Task 4.3 - Step Response of 2nd Order System without

Oscillations

The step response of the system is shown in Fig. 2.3.

Figure 2.3: Step response of 2nd order system without oscillations.

The relevant values for system order and paramater estimation were calculated using a
function developed in Matlab. The relevant calculations are shown as follows:

T10% = 0.0553
T90% = 0.4006
T90%
= 7.25
T10%
T90%
= 3.89
T
T90%
T = = 0.103
3.89

Thus, the estimated time constant of the system of 0.103 is very close to the actual one
(T=0.1).

11
 2 Simulation

2.4 Task 4.4 - Step Response of 2nd Order System with Oscillations

The step responses of the various system are compared in Fig. 2.4.

Figure 2.4: Step response of 2nd order system without oscillations.

The estimated parameters gain K, damping ratio D, Tn are as follows:

K D Tn
a) 1.0044 0.1033 0.4973
b) 1.0043 0.3050 0.4866
c) 1.0043 0.1033 0.9947

For the step response, the damping ratio D of the system affects the percentage overshoot
and the settling time of the system without significantly altering the rise time of the
system. Thus as the damping factor is increased, the overshoot is reduced, the system
undergoes less oscillation and settles to its steady state value more quickly.
The natural frequency influences of the system defines the frequency at which the
system would have oscillated in the undamped case and, in the damped case, affects the
damped frequency of oscillation in conjunction with the damping ratio. Thus this affects
the oscillation frequency of the response. Increasing the natural period Tn , which is the

12
 2 Simulation

reciprocal of the natural frequency wn , leads to an increase in the period of oscillation

thereby causing the system response to slow down and stretch along the time axis. This
thus affects the settling time and the rise time without significantly altering the percentage
overshoot of the system.
The damping ratio D can dramatically change the shape of step response of the system :

Case D < 0: The system will be unstable. The oscillations of the system will increase
to the bounds of the system. The poles of the system are in right hand side.

Case D = 0: The system is marginally stable. This is the undamped case. The
system output will be that of sustained oscillations with an amplitude dependent
upon the initial conditions. The poles of the system are on the imaginary axes.

Case 0 < D < 1: The system is stable. This is underdamped case. The system
output will undergo damped oscillations and the system output will eventually reach
a steady state output value. The system has complex conjugate poles.

Case D = 1: The system is stable. This is the critically damped case. The system
will reach the steady state output value with no oscillations. This is the fastest
response that system can have without oscillations. The poles are two real repeated
poles in the left hand side on the real axis.

Case D > 1: The system is stable. This is the over-damped case. The system will
reach the steady state output value relatively slowly (will consume more time than
the critically damped case). The system has two real poles at different locations in
the left hand side on the real axis.

The natural frequency wn is the frequency of oscillation of the system without damping
(D = 0). The reciprocal of the natural frequency wn is the factor Tn . The damped

frequency of oscillation is given by wd = Wn D2 1. The natural frequency wn of a
system affects the position of the poles as follows:

Case D < 0: The system will be unstable. We are not interested in the transient
response.

Case D = 0: This is the undamped case. The poles of the system are s1,2 = jwn .

Case 0 < D < 1: This is the underdamped case. The poles of the system are
s1,2 = wn D jwd .

Case D = 1: This is the critically damped case. The poles of the system are
s1,2 = wn .

Case D > 1: it is over damped case. The poles of the system are s1,2 = -wn D wd .

13
 2 Simulation

2.5 Task 4.5 - Frequency Response of 1st Order Systems

The response of the system to sinusoidal excitation is shown in Fig. 2.5.

Figure 2.5: Response of 1st order system to sinusoidal excitation.

The estimated values of gain and phase from the plot are as follows:

360
= t = 45.2
T
P Vpeak
KdB = 20 log = 3.0103dB
M Vpeak

14
3 References

The following have been used as references:

1. Lecture notes "Systems and Control", OvGU-Magdeburg, 2015.

2. Lecture notes "Process Control", OvGU-Magdeburg, 2016.

15
4 Appendix

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