18 Chapter 2

Additional laws describing specic characteristics of some components may be

necessary but usually may be explained by one of the above laws. Of particular
interest to controls engineers is modeling a system comprised of several domains,
since many controllers must be designed to control such combinations.
Although each topic presented could (and maybe should) constitute a complete
college course, an attempt is made to present the basics of modeling and analysis of
dynamic systems relative to control system design. Many of the tasks discussed can
now easily be solved using standard desktop/laptop computers. The goal of this
chapter is to present both the basic theory along with appropriate computer solution
methods. One without the other severely limits the eectiveness of the control engi-
neer.

2.3 AN INTRODUCTION TO MODEL REPRESENTATION

2.3.1 Differential Equations
Dierential equations describe the dynamic performance of physical systems. Three
common and equivalent notations are given below. They are commonly inter-
changed, depending on the preference and software being used.

dx d 2x
x0 x_ and x00 x
dt dt2
When a slash to the right of or a dot over a variable is given, time is assumed to
be the independent variable. The number of slashes or dots represents order of the
dierential. Dierential equations are generally obtained from physical laws describ-
ing the system process and may be classied according to several categories, as
illustrated in Table 1.
Another consideration depends on the number of unknowns that are involved.
If only a single function is to be found, then one equation is sucient. If there are

Table 1 Classications of Differential Equations

Order The highest derivative that appears in the equation

Ordinary (ODE) The function depends only on one independent variable (common
independent variable in physical systems is time)
Partial Contains differentials with respect to two or more variables
(common in electromagnetic and heat conduction systems)
Linear Constant coefcients and no derivatives raised to higher powers
Nonlinear Functions as coefcients or derivatives raised to higher powers
Homogeneous No forcing function (sum of derivatives equals zero)
Nonhomogeneous Differential equation with a nonzero forcing function
Complementary The homogeneous portion of a nonhomogenous differential equation
Auxiliary equation The polynomial formed by replacing all derivatives with variables
raised to the power of their respective derivatives
Complementary Solution to the complementary equation
solution
Particular solution Solution to the nonhomogeneous differential equation
Steady-state value Determined by setting all derivatives in equation to zero