Step Response of Second-order Systems and Damping

Ratio
H. R. Pota {h-pota@adfa.edu.au}
June 12, 2005

Transfer function for a second-order system can be written as,

ωn 2
G(s) = (1)
s2 + 2ζωn s + ωn 2
where ζ, ωn > 0. The transfer function is parameterised in terms of ζ and ωn . The value of
ωn doesn’t qualitatively change the system response but there are three important cases—with
qualitatively different system behaviour—as ζ varies. The three cases are discussed below.

(a) ζ > 1
This is known as an overdamped system. To see why, let’s look at the step-response for this
case.
1 ωn 2
Y (s) =
s (s + p1 )(s + p2 )
1 p2 1 p1 1
= − + (2)
s p2 − p1 s + p 1 p2 − p1 s + p 2
√ √
where p2 > p1 > 0, p1 = ωn (ζ − ζ 2 − 1), and p2 = ωn (ζ + ζ 2 − 1). This gives:
!  √  !  √ 
1 ζ −ωn ζ− ζ 2 −1 t 1 ζ −ωn ζ+ ζ 2 −1 t
y(t) = 1 − √ 2 +1 e + √ 2 −1 e
2 ζ −1 2 ζ −1
ζ
 q   q 
= 1 − e−ωn t cosh ωn ζ 2 − 1 t − √ 2 e−ωn t sinh ωn ζ 2 − 1 t (3)
ζ −1
In the above equation (3) it can be seen that
 q   q 
cosh ωn ζ2 − 1 t > 0 and sinh ωn ζ2 − 1 t > 0, ∀t > 0.

This means that two positive numbers are always subtracted in equation (3) from the steady-
state value of 1. Hence the step-response y(t) in equation (3) never goes above 1, hence the
classification of overdamped.

(b) ζ < 1
This is known as an underdamped system. To see why, let’s look at the step-response for this
case.
1 ωn 2
Y (s) =
s s2 + 2ζωn s + ωn 2
1 s + 2ζωn
= − 2
s s + 2ζωns + ωn 2
1 ζωn s + ζωn
= − − (4)
s (s + ζωn ) + ωn (1 − ζ ) (s + ζωn )2 + ωn 2 (1 − ζ 2 )
2 2 2
This gives:

ζe−ζωnt
y(t) = 1 − √ sin ωd t − e−ζωn t cos ωd t
1 − ζ2
e−ζωn t
= 1− √ sin(ωd t + ψ) (5)
1 − ζ2
√
√ 1−ζ 2
where ωd = ωn 1 − ζ and ψ = tan
2 −1
ζ
.
It can be clearly seen that the step-response in equation (5) will overshoot the steady-state
value of 1 as the sinusoidal function takes negative values, hence the classification as under-
damped system.

(c) ζ = 1
This is the critically damped case. To see why let’s look at the step-response.
Step-response:

1 ωn 2
Y (s) =
s (s + ωn )2
1 1 ωn
= − − (6)
s s + ωn (s + ωn )2

This gives,
y(t) = 1 − e−ωn t − ωn te−ωn t . (7)
Comparing the above expression (7) for the step-response with the expression for overdamped
case in expression (3), we see that since (for ζ > 1):
ζ
 q   q 
cosh ωn ζ2 − 1 t > 1, ∀t > 0 and √ sinh ωn ζ2 − 1 t > ωn t, ∀t > 0,
ζ2 − 1
the step-response of a critically damped system will always be higher than the overdamped
system step-response (ζ > 1). In other words, of all the second order damped systems with real
poles (parameterised by ζ as in expression (1)) this will reach the steady-state in the shortest
time. That’s why it’s called critically damped. This can be clearly seen in Figure 1.
Second order system step−response
1.4
ζ=2
ζ=1
ζ=0.3
1.2

1
Step Response

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Time (s)

Figure 1: Step-response of Second-order System (ωn = 10)