Unit step input time response of a first order control system

After reading this topic Unit step input time response of a first order control system, you will understand theory, error expressions and derivation.


A block diagram of first order closed – loop control system with unity negative feedback is shown below

 

First order control system block diagram

Figure 1 First order control system block diagram.   www.electricalworkbook.com

The general output C(s) for the first order control system as

\[C(s) = R(s)\frac{1}{{1 + sT}}….(1)\]

The input R(s) to the system is unit step function, so in the s – domain

\[R(s) = \frac{1}{s}….(2)\]

and in time(t) domain,

\[r(t) = 1\]

Hence, Equation1 and Equation 2 gives

\[C(s) = \frac{1}{s}.\frac{1}{{1 + sT}}….(3)\]

Applying partial fraction on Equation 3 gives

\[C(s) = \frac{1}{s} – \frac{T}{{1 + sT}}….(4)\]

Equation 4 can written as

\[C(s) = \frac{1}{s} – \frac{1}{{s + (1/T)}}….(5)\]

Applying inverse laplace transform on both sides of Equation 5

\[{\mathscr{L}^{ – 1}}C(s) = {\mathscr{L}^{ – 1}}\left[ {\frac{1}{s} – \frac{1}{{s + (1/T)}}} \right]\]

\[c(t) = 1 – {e^{ – t/T}}….(6)\]

The time response c(t) of Equation 6 is shown below in Figure 1.

Unit step input time response of a first order control system

Error expression

The error in time domain written as

\[e(t) = r(t) – c(t)\]

\[ = 1 – (1 – {e^{ – t/T}})\]

\[ = {e^{ – t/T}}….(7)\]

The steady state error is given as,

\[{e_{ss}} = \mathop {\lim }\limits_{t \to \infty } {e^{ – t/T}} = 0\]

The error expression of Equation 7 is shown below in Figure 2.

Error in unit step input time response of a first order control system.

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