Example: Dynamics of DC motor

By assuming that , we can obtain the following transfer function of the above DC motor.

If here we are interested in the angular velocity dynamics , i.e. , which can be derived
as follows:

Use the Laplace transform to solve for the dynamics of the DC motor with

• constant supply voltage

•

• zero initial conditions: .

1. Compute the Laplace transform of and solve for its dynamics .

2. Use partial fraction decomposition to separate the expression for into terms where the inverse Laplace
transform is known

Try performing the partial fraction decomposition on paper and comparing your result to the symbolic solution found
below.

% Define motor's parameters

Ra = 6; Kb = 6; Kt = 6; Jm = 2; Dm = 4;
% Define Omega(s)
syms s
Om = Kt/(Ra*Jm)*30/s/(s+(Dm+(Kt*Kb/Ra))/Jm)

1
 Om =

% Compute the partial fraction decomposition

Omdecomp = partfrac(Om,s)

Omdecomp =

3. Take the inverse Laplace transform

You can take the inverse Laplace transform by rewriting as a sum of terms in forms found on a transform table.

Then solution is then constructed by taking the inverse transform:

where is the unit step function.

Alternatively, you can use the symbolic function ilaplace to find the inverse Laplace transform of .

syms om
om = ilaplace(Om) % The inverse Laplace transform of X(s)

om =

4. Plot the solution

% Create solution array

t = linspace(0,1,200);
om = 3*(1-exp(-5*t));
% This generates a plot
plot(t,om); ylabel('Speed(rad/s)'); xlabel('Time(s)')

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You should compare the obtained response with the expected response according to the DC motor's transfer function.

First, let's rewrite the transfer function in the standard form of first-order systems.

Hence, the dc gain rad/(sV) and the time constant = 0.2 s, which agree well with the simulated response.