Guieb, Ian R.

Analysis

Items one and two of the experiment focuses on finding the homogeneous and particular
solutions of differential equations given. There are functions that we can use to directly get the
total solution of differential equations, however, homogeneous solutions and particular solutions
would require number of steps in order to get the solutions. This means that we would really
need to recall the proper ways of solving differential equations and MATLAB is only used to
simplify the task. In obtaining the homogeneous solution, the roots of auxiliary equation are to
be obtained first, which uses the function root(x), where x is an array of the coefficients (1x3
matrix) of the auxiliary equation in the format of x=[a b c]. Upon obtaining the roots, it is up to
us to establish the equation, depending on the nature of the roots. In (1a), the roots obtained are
(-3+2i) and (-3-2i) which is imaginary, so naturally the homogeneous solution will be
e3t ( c 1 cos 2 t + c 2 sin 2 t ) . In (1b), the roots are repeated (both -5), and so the homogeneous
5 t

solution is c 1 e

5 t

+ c2 t e

. The roots in (1c) are -7 and -3 (distinct and real), so the

7 t
3t
homogeneous solution is c 1 e + c2 e
.

The above items only solve differential equations that are second order and linear in nature. In
dealing with differential equations having non-homogeneous solutions, Laplace transform is
2

needed. Given the differential equation in

d c (t )
dt

+10

d c(t )
+21 c(t )=1+2t 2
dt

in number (4), the

total solution is obtained first by getting the Laplace transform of r(t). The function laplace(r(t))
is used, and the function syms t is used to define the variable t (used before using the function
laplace( ) ). After this, the Laplace transform C(s) is obtained by dividing R(s) to the auxiliary
2

equation in the same domain: s +10 s+ 21

(again the function syms s is used to define the

variable s). The inverse Laplace of the result is then obtained as the total solution with the use of
function ilaplace( ).

For the next items, we are to find the zeroes and poles of the transfer function. Given a certain
transfer function, the roots of the numerator are the zeroes and the roots of the denominator are
the poles. Again the function roots( ) mentioned above is used. If the zeroes and poles of the
transfer function is to be plotted instead, the command pzmap(G) is used, with G as the transfer
function declared before pzmap( ). The format of declaration is G=tf( [num], [den]).

For the last item, the given transfer function is to be evaluated using partial fraction expansion.
This can be achieved by declaring the numerator and denominator of the transfer function in the
form of an array. The function residue(num, den) is then used to determine the residues, poles,
and direct terms of the decomposed fractions. The array [r, p, k] is used as a container for the
values obtained when using the residue function, and so the format is [r, p, k] = residue(num,
den). Upon getting the expanded transfer function, the ilaplace( ) is used to determine the
solution.