Activity No.

3
THE TRANSFER FUNCTION AND SYSTEM RESPONSE

Introduction
In the field of control system, a process or plant is usually presented in the form of a block. A
block represents the transfer function H(s) of a linear-time invariant (LTI) system as shown.

The transfer function is defined as

with initial conditions equal to zero

Where: X(s) = the Laplace transform of the input x(t)
Y(s) = the Laplace transform of the output y(t)
H(s) = transfer function
Given an LTI system that is characterized by the input-output relationship described by the
2 ()

()

differential equation 2 + 4 + 100() = 100().

With the use of Laplace transform, determine the transfer function of the aforesaid system. Show
your mathematical solution below:

Write and evaluate the following code:

n=[100];
%
d=[1 4 100]; %
sys=tf(n,d)
%
What is the result after running it in Matlab? __________________________
How is it compared to the transfer function you obtained earlier? ____________________
Fill out the comments describing the line statements in the code above. Write them after each %
symbol above.

1, > 0
If the input x(t) of the system is a unit step function () = {
,
0, < 0
determine the system response () = ()(). Write the result below:

Using manual mathematical computation, determine the time-domain system response y(t) by
taking the inverse Laplace transform of Y(s). Write your solution below:

Write the m-file that will take the inverse Laplace transform of Y(s) above. Run the code and
write the results below:

Using the system response y(t) you obtained, write a short Matlab program code that will plot y(t)
from t=0 and t=3 sec.

Draw the plotted figure below:

Write and run the program code as follows:

close all
clear all
clc
n=[100];
d=[1 4 100];
sys=tf(n,d);
t=[0:0.01:5];
step(sys,t);

%
%
%
%
%

Draw the results below. How does it compare to the one you previously plotted? What can you
say about the two graphs?