KM3473 System Dynamics & Control

Engineering

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sallehuddin Mohamed Haris

April 19, 2019

1st Order Dynamic Systems
The General Form

 The general form of a 1st order system is given by

τ ẋ (t) + x (t) = u (t)

where τ is the system time constant.

 The transfer function is then given by

X (s) 1
G (s) = =
U (s) τs + 1

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Poles & Zeros

 The poles of a transfer function are the values of the Laplace

variable s that cause the transfer function to become infinite.
 The zeros of a transfer function are the values of the Laplace
variable s that cause the transfer function to become zero.

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Poles & Zeros

 Hence,the poles of a transfer function are given by the roots

of the denominator polynomial (also known as the
characteristic polynomial), and
 the zeros of a transfer function are given by the roots of the
numerator polynomial.

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Poles

 The pole of a first order system is given by the solution to the

characteristic equation

τs + 1 = 0

Hence, the pole of any 1st order dynamic system is p = − τ1 .

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The Unit Step Response

 Given a unit step input, u (t) = 1, i.e. U (s) = 1s , then

1 1
X (s) = G (s) U (s) = .
τs + 1 s
 The solution is
t
x (t) = 1 − e− τ
 At steady-state (i.e. as t → ∞),

lim x (t) = 1
t→∞

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The Unit Step Response

 At time t = τ ,
τ
x (τ ) = 1 − e− τ = 1 − e−1 = 1 − 0.37 = 0.63

 Similarly,
 at time t = 2τ , x (2τ ) = 0.86
 at time t = 3τ , x (3τ ) = 0.95
 at time t = 4τ , x (4τ ) = 0.98
 at time t = 5τ , x (5τ ) = 0.99

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The Unit Step Response

 In summary, given a constant value input (also known as a

step input), the response of any 1st order system is
time, t % of steady state value reached
τ 63
2τ 86
3τ 95
4τ 98
5τ 99

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The Unit Step Response
Example A plant transfer function is given by
1
G (s) =
0.2s + 1
Given a step input of magnitude 2 i.e. u (t) = 2, U (s) = 2s , the
system time response x (t) is as shown

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