EN 2510

UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering
B.Sc. Engineering
Level 2 - Semester 1 Examination
EN 2510 - SIGNALS AND SYSTEMS

Answer ALL questions, Time allowed: Two hours. January 2010

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:

Transform tables are provided at the end of the question paper

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

This paper contains 4 questions on 8 pages.

All questions carry equal marks. The marks assigned for each part of a question is
indicated in brackets.

This examination accounts for 70% of the module assessment.

This is a closed book examination.

Derivations are not required if they are not explicitly requested for in the question.

Continued ...

Page 1 of 8
 EN 2510

This Page is Intentionally Left Blank

Continued ...

Page 2 of 8
 EN 2510

Question 1.
Analysis of a Vehicle Shock Absorber. A shock absorber in a car is designed to damp
the oscillations of the suspension springs in the car. Without this damping, after a
car passes over a bump, it will bounce (oscillate) up and down many times rather
than just once. An equivalent model of a shock absorber is given in Figure Q1.1.
The damping in a shock absorber is obtained by forcing a piston to move through a
liquid/gas-filled cylinder with an appropriate amount of fluid flow through or around
the cylinder. This provides a drag force that is approximately proportional to the
speed with which the piston moves.

Figure Q1.1: Equivalent Model of a Vehicle Shock Absorber

With this type of damping, the equation of motion for a mass on a spring becomes

d2 x(t) dx(t)
m 2
+b + kx(t) = F (t), (1)
dt dt
where x is the displacement of the shock absorber in the vertical direction, m is the
mass of the vehicle, b is the damping coefficient of the viscous fluid, k the spring
constant and F (t) the force acting on the wheel when it goes over a bump.
(a) Is the vehicle shock absorber system linear? State any assumptions you make
related to the salient parameters of (1). [4]
(b) Is the system causal? [4]
(c) Find the impulse response h(t) of the system. This is also known as the zero-state
response where we ignore any initial conditions when we derive h(t). [4]

Page 3 of 8
 EN 2510

(d) Some mechanics test the shock absorbers of the car by pushing the car chassis
down and observing the number of times the body of the car oscillates. Assuming
an initial displacement of the chassis to be x(t) = x0 , derive the expression for
√
the movement of the chassis for b = 2 mk. Hint:– Since the car is at rest, this
type of analysis is called zero-input system analysis. [4]
(e) Sketch x(t) in part (d). Deduce and sketch the response x(t) for the two cases
√ √
b > 2 mk and b < 2 mk. Comment on the comfort level for the passengers of
the car when the wheel goes over a pothole for the three cases. [4]
(f) Sometimes the drivers go over the curb of the road. We will now see how it can
be modeled and analyzed. The effect of a car striking the curb can be modeled
by letting the road surface height change discontinuously by a quantity hc . Let
hc = 0.15 m, Model the forcing function on the shock absorber system and find
the response x(t) using the part (c). Sketch the response. [5]

Question 2.
Analysis of a Clipped Sinusoid. The distortion caused by saturation of audio ampli-
fiers is a result of the input to the amplifier multiplied by the gain of the amplifier
exceeding the maximum allowable signal amplitude from the output of the amplifier.
The consequence of this is the signal will be clipped and the audio output distorted.
In this question we will analyze an idealized situation using a single sinusoidal sig-
nal and the consequences of clipping. Consider the audio setup with a saturation
amplifier as shown in Figure Q2.1.
Saturating Amplifier

Output voltage
Amax Speaker
LTI System
x(t) xc (t)
h(t)
Input voltage

Amin

Figure Q2.1: Audio System with Distortions

The input to the saturating amplifier is x(t) and the output from the saturating
amplifier is xc (t) and is shown in Figure Q2.2(a) and Figure Q2.2(b) respectively.

Page 4 of 8
 EN 2510

x(t) xc (t)
Amax

− T2 T
2 − T2 −t1 t1
T
2
t t
−t0 t0

Amin
(a) Input (b) Clipped output

Figure Q2.2: Input and Output Waveforms to the Saturating Amplifier

(a) Sketch the Fourier Series of the input waveform. [5]

(b) Show how to compute and sketch the Fourier coefficients of the Output xc (t)
using the multiplication property of the Fourier Series by writing xc (t) as xc (t) =
x(t)p(t) and defining p(t). [10]
Note:– The multiplication property is defined as
FS:ω
X
0
x1 (t)x2 (t) −−−→ cn = c2m c1n−m = c1n ∗ c2n
∀m

Where,
FS:ω FS:ω
0
x1 (t) −−−→ c1n and x2 (t) −−−→
0
c2n

(c) Deduce what will happen to the Fourier coefficients if the clipping limit is grad-
ually increased. You may use sketches of the coefficients to justify your answer.
[10]

Page 5 of 8
 EN 2510

Question 3.
Analysis of a DSB Waveform using Fourier Transforms. Three DSB waveforms are
received simultaneously. The received waveform is given by

y(t) = A1 x1 (t) cos(2πF1 t) + A2 x2 (t) cos(2πF2 t) + A3 x3 (t) cos(2πF3 t),

where x1 (t), x2 (t) and x3 (t) are the three baseband message waveforms. The spec-
trum of each message signal is 0 for |F | > W Hz. The frequencies F1 , F2 , and F3 are
all large compared to W , and they are separated by at least 2W Hz.
(a) Sketch Y (F ). For simplicity, assume that the message spectrums are real and
even. Use any message spectrums that satisfy the condition stated. [5]
(b) Show that you can recover x2 (t) from y(t) if you multiply y(t) by cos(2πF2 t) and
apply the resulting product to a low pass filter. This type of receiver is called
a coherent demodulator. Plot the spectrum of the multiplied signal before and
after the low pass filter. [10]
(c) Show what happens to the receiver of part (a) if the local oscillator has a phase
error of 900 . Specifically, find the output of the low pass filter when y(t) is
multiplied by sin(2πF2 t) instead of cos(2πF2 t). Sketch the spectra before and
after the multiplication. [10]

Question 4.
Significance of the Region of convergence and Stability. Consider the two LTI systems
for which the input x(t) and output y(t) are related by the following differential
equations.

d2 y(t) dy(t)
System 1 : 2
+2 + 10y(t) = x(t)
dt dt
d2 y(t) dy(t)
System 2 : 2
+ 10 + 34y(t) = x(t)
dt dt
Let X(s) and Y (s) denote the Laplace transforms of x(t) and y(t) respectively, and
let H1 (s) and H2 (s) denote the Laplace transforms of h1 (t) and h2 (t), the system
impulse responses for System 1 and 2 respectively.
(a) Determine H1 (s) and H2 (s) as a ratio of polynomials in s. Sketch the pole-zero
patterns of the two transfer functions. [5]
(b) Using the pole-zero patterns, deduce which system is more stable and why based
on these locations. [5]

Page 6 of 8
 EN 2510

(c) For each of the following cases determine h1 (t) and also its region of convergence.
i. The system is stable [5]
ii. The system is causal [5]
iii. The system is neither stable nor causal [5]

End of Questions

Transform Tables

Signal Laplace Transform

1. δ(t) 1
1
2. 1 or u(t)
s
1
3. e−at
s+a
tn 1
4. n+1
n s
te−at 1
5.
n (s + a)n+1
b
6. sin bt
s 2 + b2
s
7. cos bt
s + b2
2
b
8. e−at sin bt
(s + a)2 + b2
s+a
9. e−at cos bt
(s + a)2 + b2
10. x(t)e−αt X(s + α)
11. x(t − t0 )u(t − t0 ) X(s)e−st0

Table 1: Single-sided Laplace transforms

Page 7 of 8
 EN 2510

Pair x(t) X(f )

 
t
1. Π τ sinc τ f
τ  
f
2. 2W sinc 2W t Π
2W
1
3. exp (−αt)u(t),α > 0
α + j2πf
1
4. t exp (−αt)u(t),α > 0
(α + j2πf )2
2α
5. exp (−α|t|),α > 0
α + (2πf )2
2

6. δ(t) 1
9. 1 δ(f )
7. δ(t − t0 ) exp(−j2πf t0 )
8. exp(−j2πf0 t) δ(f − f0 )
1
9. cos(2πf0 t) 2
[δ(f − f0 ) + δ(f + f0 )]
1
10. sin(2πf0 t) 2j
[δ(f − f0 ) − δ(f + f0 )]
11. u(t) (j2πf )−1 + 12 δ(f )
12. Sgn(t) (jπf )−1
1
13. −jSgn(t)
πt Z ∞
1 x(λ)
14. x̂(t) = dλ −jSgn(f )X(f )
π −∞ t − λ
X∞ X∞
15. δ(t − mTs ) fs δ(f − mfs )
m=−∞ m=−∞

16. x(t − t0 ) X(f )e−j2πf t0

17. x(−t) X(−f )
18. X(t) x(−f )
19. x(t)ej2πf0 t X(f − f0 )
d
20. tx(t) j X(f )
df

Table 2: Fourier transform pairs

Page 8 of 8