Time Response of Second-Order Control System

The order of a control system is determined by the power of s in the

denominator of its transfer function. If the power of s in the
denominator of transfer function of a control system is 2, then the
system is said to be second-order control system. The general
expression of transfer function of a second order control system is
given as

Here, ζ and ωn are damping ratio and natural frequency of the system
respectively and we will learn about these two terms in detail later on.
Therefore, the output of the system is given as

If we consider a unit step function as the input of the system, then the
output equation of the system can be rewritten as
Taking inverse Laplace transform of above equation, we get,

The above expression of output c(t) can be rewritten as

The error of the signal of the response is given by e(t) = r (t) – c(t), and
hence.

From the above expression it is clear that the error of the signal is of
oscillation type with exponentially decaying magnitude when ζ d and
the time constant of exponential decay is 1/ζωn. Where, ωd, is referred
as damped frequency of the oscillation, and ωn is natural frequency of
the oscillation. The term ζ affects that damping a lot and hence this
term is called damping ratio.
Figure 8.4.2 (a) page 136
There will be different behaviors of output signal, depending upon the
value of damping ratio and let us examine each of the cases, one by
one.
When damping ratio is zero, we can rewrite the above expression of
output signal as

As in this expression, there is no exponential term, the time response of

the control system is un-damped for unit step input function with zero
damping ratio.
Page 137. Figure 6.4.3.
Now let us examine the case when damping ratio is unity.
In this expression of output signal, there is no oscillating part in
subjective unit step function. And hence this time response of second-
order control system is referred as critically damped.
Now we will examine the time response of a second order control
system subjective unit step input function when damping ratio is
greater than one.

Taking inverse Laplace transform of both sides of the above equation

we get,
In the above expression, there are two time constants.

For the value of ζ comparatively much greater than one, the effect of
faster time constant on the time response can be neglected and the time
response expression finally comes as

figure 6 .4 .5 of the page 139

Critical Damping Time Response of Control System
The time response expression of a second order control system subject
to unit step input function is given below.

The reciprocal of constant of negative power of exponential term in the

error part of the output signal is actually responsible for damping of
the output response. Here in this equation it is ζωn. The reciprocal of
constant of negative power of exponential term in error signal is
known as time constant. We have already examined that when the
value of ζ (also know as damping ratio) is less than unity, the
oscillation of the response decays exponentially with a time constant
1/ζωn. This is called under damped response. On the other hand when
ζ is greater than unity, the response of the unit step input given to the
system, does not exhibit oscillating part in it. This is called over
damped response. We have also examined the situation when
damping ratio is unity that is ζ = 1. At that situation the damping of
the response is governed by the natural frequency ωn only. The actual
damping at that condition is known as critical damping of the
response. As we have already seen in the associated expressions of
time response of control system subject to input step function, the
oscillation part is present in the response when damping ratio (ζ) is
less than one and it is not present in the response when damping ratio
is equal to one. That means the oscillation part of the response just
disappears when the damping ratio becomes unity. That is why
damping of the response at ζ = 1, is known as critical damping. More
precisely, when damping ratio is unity, the response is critically
damped and then the damping is known as critical damping. The ratio
of time constant of critical damping to that of actual damping is known
as damping ratio. As the time constant of time response of control
system is 1/ζωn when ζ≠ 1 and time constant is 1/ωn when ζ = 1.

Characteristics equation of time response of second-order

control system

The general equation of transfer function of second order control

system is given as

If the denominator of the expression is zero,

These two roots of the equation or these two values of s represent the
poles of the transfer function of that system. The real part of the roots
represents the damping and imaginary part represents damped
frequency of the response.
The location of the roots of the characteristics equation for various
values of ζ keeping ωn fixed and the corresponding time response for a
second order control system is shown in the figure below.
Figure 8.4.7 of page 140
Transient response specifications of second-order control system.
The performance of the control system can be expressed in the term of
transient response to a unit step input function because it is easy to
generate. Let us consider a second-order control system in which a unit
step input signal is given and it is also considered that the system is
initially at rest. That is all initial conditions of the system are zero. The
time response characteristics of the system at under damped condition
is drawn below.
Figure 2.17 of page 92 of the book automatic control system by Hasan.
There are number of common terms in transient response
characteristics and which are
1. Delay time (td) is the time required to reach at 50% of its final
value by a time response signal during its first cycle of
oscillation.
2. Rise time (tr) is the time required to reach at final value by a
under damped time response signal during its first cycle of
oscillation. If the signal is over damped, then rise time is counted
as the time required by the response to rise from 10% to 90% of
its final value.
3. Peak time (tp) is simply the time required by response to reach its
first peak i.e. the peak of first cycle of oscillation, or first
overshoot.
4. Maximum overshoot (Mp) is straight way difference between the
magnitude of the highest peak of time response and magnitude
of its steady state. Maximum overshoot is expressed in term of
percentage of steady-state value of the response. As the first
peak of response is normally maximum in magnitude, maximum
overshoot is simply normalized difference between first peak
and steady-state value of a response.

Page 13
 Settling time (ts) is the time required for a response to become
steady. It is defined as the time required by the response to reach and
steady within specified range of 2 % to 5 % of its final value.
 Steady-state error (e ss ) is the difference between actual output and
desired output at the infinite range of time.

Expression of Rise Time

The expression of under damped second-order control system with

unit step input function,

Again, as per definition, the magnitude of output signal at Rice times

is 1. That is c(t) = 1, hence

Expression of Peak Time

As per definition at the peak time, the response curve reaches to its
maximum value. Hence at that point,
The maximum overshoot occurs at n = 1.

Expression of Maximum Overshoot

If we put the expression of peak time in the expression of output
response c(t), we get,
Expression of Settling Time
It is already defined that settling time of a response is that time after
which the response reaches to its steady-state condition with value
above nearly 98% of its final value. It is also observed that this
duration is approximately 4 times of time constant of a signal. At the
time constant of a second-order control system is 1/ζ ωn, the expiration
of settling time can be given as