LECTURE 6

Second – Order Systems:

• Transfer function,
• Step response,
• Impulse response,
• Sinusoidal response,
• Transportation lag and their dynamics,
• Transfer function for chemical reactors and dynamics.
Introduction
Second-order System Or A Quadratic Lag.
• Second-order systems are described by a second-order differential equation that relates the
output variable y to the input variable x (the forcing function) with time as the independent
variable.

• We know that the order of a control system is determined by the power of 's' in the denominator
of its transfer function.
• In second order control system the power of s in the denominator of the transfer function of
a control system is 2.
• Consider the following block diagram of closed loop control system.
• Here, an open loop transfer function, is connected with a unity negative feedback.
Transfer function
• Consider the transfer function of the closed loop system given below

• For the closed loop control system with unity negative feedback as shown above
• The Transfer Function is given by

and
• Substituting the values of G(s) and H(s)

• The power of ‘s’ is two in the denominator term.

• Hence, the above transfer function is of the second order and the system is said
to be the second order system.
• The characteristic equation is -
• The roots of the characteristic equation are

Observations
• The two roots are imaginary when δ = 0.
• The two roots are real and equal when δ = 1.
• The two roots are real but not equal when δ > 1.
• The two roots are complex conjugate when 0 < δ < 1.
• We can write the output C(s) of the transfer function equation as,

Where,
• C(s) is the Laplace transform of the output signal, c(t)
• R(s) is the Laplace transform of the input signal, r(t)
• is the natural frequency
• is the damping ratio (damping coefficient).
• Follow these steps to get the response (output) of the second order system in the
time domain.
• Take Laplace transform of the input signal

• Consider the equation,

• Substitute value in the above equation

• Do partial fractions of if required
• Apply inverse Laplace to
• General transfer function

Where
K is the steady state gain
is the time constant :
• K is the steady-state gain, and τ determines the speed of response (or, equivalently, the response
time) of the system.
:
• The damping coefficient ζ (zeta) is dimensionless.
• It provides a measure of the amount of damping in the system—that is, the degree of
oscillation in a process response after an input change.
• Small values of ζ imply little damping and a large amount of oscillation,
Note that there are two parameters that characterize the 2nd order system Tau and
Second-Order Systems Response to a Unit Step Change
• From the General transfer function

• Unit step:
• Substitute

• Factor the quadratic term:

• Therefore:
• Then from

• The response of the system Y ( t ) can be found by inverting Y(s).

• The roots and will be:
» real or
»complex
• Depending on value of the parameter zeta .
• The nature of the roots will, in turn, affect the form of Y( t ).
• The problem may be divided into the three cases.
• Given

• The solution for the output of the 2nd order system, Y(t), with the input, X(t), is a
step function.
• The solution will depend on the value of ζ.
If 0 < ζ < 1, Y(t) will be underdamped.
• This means that the output will overshoot and oscillate.
If ζ = 1, Y(t) will be critically damped.
This means that the output will reach the steady state value quickly, without
overshoot or oscillation.
• If ζ > 1, Y(t) will be overdamped.
This means that the output will not reach the steady state value as quickly as a
critically damped system, but there will be no overshoot or oscillation.
Overdamped & Critically Damped Systems
 Response of Second-order Processes
• A second-order transfer function can arise whenever two first-order processes are
connected in series.
• Consider the system below

• The TF for the system above is given as

Recall the General second order TF

• From the two equation we can observe the following

• The steady state gain

• The time constant and damping coefficient can be obtained by

Expanding the right hand side, we obtain

Thus
• The damping coefficient can be obtained as

Solving for gives

EXAMPLE 1
• An overdamped system consists of two first-order processes operating in series .
Find the equivalent values of τ and ζ for this system.
SOLUTION
• From Equations above
• Equations that provide a check on these results:

• The underdamped form second order can arise from some mechanical systems,
from flow or other processes such as a pneumatic (air) instrument line with too
little line capacity, or from a mercury manometer, where inertial effects are
important.
• For process control problems the underdamped form is frequently encountered in
investigating the properties of processes under feedback control.
• Next we develop the relations for the step responses of all three classes of second-
Step Response
• For the step input (U(s) = M/s) to a process described by

**

• After inverting to the time domain, the responses can be categorized into three
classes:
Overdamped (𝛇 > 1)
• If the denominator of Equation above (**) can be factored using Equations for
and , then the response can be written

overdamped
Critically Damped
• This means that the output of the process will reach the steady state value quickly,
without overshoot or oscillation.
• Thus the inversion of the equation ** will results on the equation below

Underdamped
• STEP RESPONSE FOR .
• For this case, the inversion of Equation ** for the unit input response yields the
result

For unit response (i.e K=1 and M=1)

• Plots of the step responses for different values of ζ are shown in Figure 2 and 3,
• The time axis is normalized with respect to τ.
• When τ is small, a rapid response is signified, implying a large value for the
undamped natural frequency, .
• Several general remarks can be made concerning the responses shown in figures.

1. Responses exhibit a higher degree of oscillation and overshoot as ζ approaches

zero.
2. Large values of ζ yield a sluggish (slow) response.
3. The fastest response without overshoot is obtained for the critically damped case
Figure 3: Step response of critically damped and overdamped second-order processes.
• The characteristics of the step response of a second-order underdamped process
can be illustrated by figure 4.
• The following terms are used to describe the dynamics of underdamped processes:
Rise Time:
• It is the time the process output takes to first reach the new steady-state value.
• It is the time required for the response to rise from 0% to 100% of its final value.
• This is applicable for the under-damped systems.
• For the over-damped systems, consider the duration from 10% to 90% of the final
value.
Time to First Peak.
• It is the time required for the output to reach its first maximum value.
• It is the time required for the response to reach the maximum or Peak value of the
response.
Settling Time.
It is the time required for the process output to reach and remain inside a band whose width is
equal to ±5% of the total change in y (±1% is also used for some applications).

Peak (overshoot) M :
• Overshoot is a measure of how much the response exceeds the ultimate value following a step
change and is expressed as the ratio A/B
• It is the difference between the peak value of the response and the steady state value.
• It is usually expressed in percent of the steady state value
Overshoot. (% overshoot is 100 a/b).
Decay Ratio.
• The decay ratio is defined as the ratio of the sizes of successive peaks and is given by
c/a
• (where c is the height of the second peak).

Period of Oscillation. P
• It is the time between two successive peaks or two successive valleys of the
response.
• Relation between some performance characteristics of an underdamped second-order
process and the process damping coefficient.
Impulse Response
• If a unit impulse is applied to the second-order system, then from Equation ** the
transform of the response is
***

• As in the case of the step input, the nature of the response to a unit impulse will
depend on
• whether the roots of the denominator of the equation are real or complex.
• The problem is again divided into the three cases shown in Table below .
• These cases are explained as follows

Impulse Response For .

• The inversion of Equation *** for yields the result

• It is plotted in Figure 5 ,the slope at the origin is 1.0 for all values of .
• A simple way to obtain equation above from the step response of equation below
is to take the derivative with respect to t.
Figure 4: Response of a second-order system to a unit-impulse forcing function.
Impulse Response For .
• For the critically damped case, the response is given by

Impulse Response For .

• For the overdamped case, the response is given by
Sinusoidal Response
• When a linear second-order system is forced by a sinusoidal input , the output for
large values of time (after exponential terms have become negligible) is also a
sinusoidal signal given by

• Where

• The output amplitude is obtained directly from

• The ratio of output to input amplitude is the amplitude ratio AR ).
• When normalized by the process gain, it is called the normalized amplitude ratio

• represents the effect of the dynamic model parameters (ζ, τ) on the sinusoidal
response;
• that is, is independent of steady-state gain K and the amplitude of the forcing
function, A.
• Maximum value of can be found by differentiating equation above with respect to
ω and setting the derivative to zero.
• Solving for gives
• For , there is no maximum
• Thus
TRANSPORTATION LAG
• A phenomenon that is often present in flow systems is the transportation lag.
• Synonyms for this term are dead time and distance velocity lag.
• Figure below present an example of the transportation lag

• Examples of Transportation delays

Fluid flow to process (input delay)
Sample delivery to analyzer (output delay)
Treated equivalently in Laplace domain
• Assumed that the system is initially at steady state;
• For this system, it is obvious that the inlet temperature equals the outlet
temperature;
****
consider the figure below:
• If a step change were made in ,
• The change would not be detected at the end of the tube until later
• where is the time required for the entering fluid to pass through the tube.
• This simple step response is shown in Figure above .
• If the variation in x(t) were some arbitrary function, as shown,
• The response y(t) at the end of the pipe would be identical with x(t) but again
delayed by units of time.
• The transportation lag parameter
• It is the time needed for a particle of fluid to flow from the entrance of the tube to
the exit,
• It can be calculated from the expression
• It can be seen from the figure that the relationship between y ( t ) and x ( t ) is

• Subtracting equation ****from above equation and introducing the deviation

variables give

• Introducing Laplace and solve we have:

• Therefore, the transfer function of a transportation lag is .

Approximation of Transport Lag.
• The transport lag is quite different from the other transfer functions (first-order,
second-order, etc.)
• One approach to approximating the transport lag is to write and to express the
denominator as a Taylor series;
• the result is

• Keeping only the first two terms in the denominator gives

• This approximation, which is simply a first-order lag,
• It is a crude approximation of a transport lag.
• An improvement can be made by expressing the transport lag as

• Expanding numerator and denominator in a Taylor series and keeping only terms
of first-order give

• This expression is also known as a first-order Padé approximation.

• Another well-known approximation for a transport lag is the second-order Padé
approximation:

Solved examples:
A step change of magnitude 4 is introduced into a system having the transfer
function:

Determine
( a ) Percent overshoot
( b ) Rise time
( c ) Maximum value of Y ( t )
( d ) Ultimate value of Y ( t )
Example 2
• A stirred-tank reactor has an internal cooling coil to remove heat liberated in the
reaction. A proportional controller is used to regulate coolant flow rate so as to keep the
reactor temperature essentially constant. The controller has been designed so that the
controlled reactor exhibits typical underdamped second-order temperature response
characteristics when it is disturbed, either by feed flow rate or by coolant temperature
changes.
a) The feed flow rate to the reactor changes suddenly from 0.4 to 0.5 kg/s, and the
temperature of the reactor contents, initially at 100 C, changes eventually to 102 C.
What is the gain of the transfer function (under feedback control) that relates changes
in reactor temperature to changes in feed flow rate? (Be sure to specify the units.)
b) The operator notes that the resulting response is slightly oscillatory with maxima
estimated to be 102.5 and 102.0 C occurring at times 1000 and 3060 s after the change
is initiated. What is the complete process transfer function?
c) The operator failed to note the rise time. Predict tr based on the results in (a) and (b).