Homework 4
ENME 462: Vibrations, Controls, and Optimization II
Department of Mechanical Engineering | Winter 2024
Due: Monday 1/8/2024 by 11:59 pm
1. In Homework 3, negative feedback was considered for controlling the angular position (shaft
angle) of a DC motor with a knob connected to a potentiometer. The unity feedback system
is given by the following block diagram
Knob R(s) + E(s) Y (s) Motor
10
Angular K Angular
Position s2 + 3s Position
−
Control Gain DC Motor
where Y (s) is the motor position and R(s) is the knob position. The closed-loop transfer
function is given by
Y (s) 10K
T (s) = = 2 .
R(s) s + 3s + 10K
(a) What are the poles of the closed-loop transfer function in terms of the control gain K?
(b) At what value of K does the closed loop system become critically damped?
(c) If you increase K above this critically damped value, how will this affect the settling
time, damped frequency, and percent overshoot (i.e., do they increase, decrease or stay
the same)?
(d) Draw the s-plane and shade in the allowable regions in the s-plane for second order
system poles to achieve a %OS less than 5%.
(e) What value of K will result in a 5% overshoot? Confirm your answer by plotting the
output in Matlab. (Hint: You may reuse the code in Homework 3 substituting in your
new choice of K. If you right-click on the plot produced by the step function, you
can display %OS by enabling the peak response option under characteristics and then
clicking the peak response. You may also use the command stepinfo.)
1 of 3
Homework 4
ENME 462: Vibrations, Controls, and Optimization II | Winter 2024
2. Consider the mechanical system depicted below. The input is given by f (t), and the output
is y(t).
k
f (t)
m y(t)
(a) Let m = 10, k = 1, and b = 0.5. Derive the transfer function from f (t) to y(t). Plot
the system response to a unit step input. Show that the peak amplitude of the output
is about y(Tp ) = 1.8.
(b) Determine the damping ratio and the natural frequency for the system.
(c) Is this system over-damped, critically damped or underdamped? Justify your answer.
(d) For a mass m = 10, choose values for b and k to yield the same natural frequency as
original system but is critically damped.
3. For each pair of second-order systems specifications that follow, find the location of the
corresponding second-order pair of poles
(a) %OS = 12%, Ts = 0.6 s
(b) %OS = 10%, Tp = 5 s
(c) Ts = 7 s, Tp = 3 s
4. For the transfer function given by
14.145
T (s) =
(s2 + 0.842s + 2.829)(s + 5)
(a) Find the percent overshoot, settling time, rise time and peak time by hand calculations.
(b) Verify the answers you obtained in part 4a numerically using Matlab. How do these
compare? Explain. (Hint: Use STEP command to simulate the step response of T (s),
and then extract the specifications using STEPINFO command.)
2 of 3
Homework 4
ENME 462: Vibrations, Controls, and Optimization II | Winter 2024
5. Design K1 and K2 in the following block diagram to yield a damping ratio of 0.69. The
natural frequency of the system before the addition of the tachometer was 10 rad/s.
Tachometer
K2 s
Pre-Amplifier
R(s) + − Y (s)
E(s) 1
K1
s(s + 1)
−
Power Amplifier
& Motor
3 of 3
