6/22/2020 Practicon Exercise System TU Delft

Question set 2
ae2204 Aerospace Systems and Control Theory
With answers and notes by Anthony Cummins (4436253)

This topic contains two practical questions on control theory. You can use Matlab to answer these questions.
Each of these questions counts for 1.5 point towards your grade. Pressing the "Proceed" button makes the
questions active, and takes you to the last (3rd) topic.

After running through all these introduction topics, choose the questions from the "answerable items" menu
and answer them.

Consider the following transfer function:

0.5(2s + 1)
H (s) =
2 2
s (s + 0.4s + 4)

Create a Bode plot for this transfer function (so open loop), and answer the
first four questions below.

Then create the closed-loop system, see the diagram, and answer the
last of the questions below.

Your answer
What is, for the current gain of this open-loop system (so K = 1 ), the
37
phase margin, in degrees?
What is, for the current gain of this open-loop system, the gain margin, in
3.64
dB?
By what gain factor K (as a factor, not in dB) should this system be
0.855
multiplied to achieve a 5 dB gain margin.

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Given the application of the aforementioned gain, what will be the open-
34.4
loop phase margin.
What is height of the (highest) resonance peak, in dB, for the closed-loop
5.77
transfer function? (Don't forget to apply the aforementioned gain)

The model answer

What is, for the current gain of this open-loop system (so K = 1 ), the
36.949915
phase margin, in degrees?
What is, for the current gain of this open-loop system, the gain margin, in
3.6368718
dB?
By what gain factor K (as a factor, not in dB) should this system be
0.85475881
multiplied to achieve a 5 dB gain margin.
Given the application of the aforementioned gain, what will be the open-
34.380116
loop phase margin.
What is height of the (highest) resonance peak, in dB, for the closed-loop
5.7835892
transfer function? (Don't forget to apply the aforementioned gain)
Explanation / script

Feedback
Here is the model answer:

And here a copy of your own answer

I have a Python script for you that would produce these answers. A Matlab script is more or less similar.

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# import needed modules

import control.matlab as cm
import numpy as np
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

# create transfer function

s = cm.tf([1, 0], [1])
h = 0.5*(2*s+1)/( s**2 * (s**2 + 0.4*s + 4) )

# margin of the open-loop system

[gm, pm, gco, pco] = cm.margin(h)

# 1st two questions

gmdB = 20*np.log10(gm)
print("pm", pm, "gm (dB)", 20*np.log10(gm))

# Bode of the open loop, to check

cm.bode(h, np.logspace(-1, 1, 500))
plt.show()

# get to 3 dB gain margin, and back to gain again

K = 10.**((gmdB - 5)/20)
print("K", K)

# phase margin after application of gain, gain margin is a check

# should be 5dB now
[gm, pm, gco, pco] = cm.margin(h*K)
print("pm2", pm, "gm", 20*np.log10(gm))

# plot closed-loop Bode, small range to get the maximum

Hc = (h*K).feedback(1)
[mag, phase, omega] = cm.bode(Hc, np.logspace(-1, 1, 500))
print("resonance peak", 20 * np.log10(mag.max()))
plt.show()

Matlab version:

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% create transfer function

s = tf('s')
h = 0.5*(2*s+1)/( s^2 * (s^2 + 0.4*s + 4) )

% margin of the open-loop system

[gm, pm, gco, pco] = margin(h)

% 1st two questions

gmdB = 20*log10(gm)
gm

% Bode of the open loop, to check

bode(h, logspace(-1, 1))

% get to 3 dB gain margin, and back to gain again

K = 10.^((gmdB - 5)/20)
print "K", K

% phase margin after application of gain, gain margin is a check

% should be 5dB now
[gm, pm, gco, pco] = margin(h*K)
20*log10(gm)

% plot closed-loop Bode, small range to get the maximum

Hc = feedback(h*K, 1)
[mag, phase, omega] = bode(Hc, logspace(-1, 1, 500))
20 *log10(max(mag))

Consider the following mass-spring and damper structure, representing the mass of a vehicle (M2 ) resting on
a spring and damper (B and K2 ), attached to the wheel (M1 ). Contact between the wheel and ground is
represented by a spring only (K1 ), since the damping in the tyre can be neglected.

For a driving vehicle, the input is the ground height (U (t) ). Construct a state-space model for this system,
with the aforementioned input, and as outputs:

1. The height of the vehicle body, xm

2. The vertical acceleration of the vehicle body, ẍm

The parameters in this structure are:

Mass of the vehicle: M2 = 1000 [kg]

Mass of the wheel: M1 = 12 [kg]
Spring constant of tyre: K1 = 46000 [N m−1 ]
Spring constant of suspension: K2 = 8000 [N m−1 ]
Damping of suspension: B = 2800 [Ns m−1 ]

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Your answer
Enter the A, B, C and D matrices of the system
A = [0 0 1 0;0 0 0 1;-4500 666.666666666667 -233.333333333333
233.333333333333;8 -8 2.80000000000000 -2.80000000000000]

B = [0;0;3.833333333333334e+03;0]

C = [0,1,0,0;8,-8,2.800000000000000,-2.800000000000000]

D = [ 0;0 ]

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The model answer

Enter the A, B, C and D matrices of the system
A = [ -233.33333, -4500.0, 233.33333, 666.66667;
1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0;
2.8, 8.0, -2.8, -8.0;
0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0 ]

B = [ 3833.3333;
0.0;
0.0;
0.0 ]

C = [ 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0;

2.8, 8.0, -2.8, -8.0 ]

D = [ 0;
0]

Explanation / script

Feedback
Here is the model answer:

And here is your own answer:

Note that these do not have to match. State-space systems can be entered in (infinitely) many variations. You
can check whether two seemingly different state-space systems are equal by starting with the eigenvalues of
the a matrices (these must match) and by calculating and comparing the transfer functions.

The basic equations of motion can be obtained by considering the forces on the two masses. We start with
the top mass (M2 ). Forces on this mass are from the spring (K2 ) and the damper (B). From the drawing,
positive direction of displacement (x2 ) is apparently upward, take the direction of forces to match. A positive
force in the spring is produced when the spring is compressed (x1 positive or x2 moves in the negative
direction), so the spring force is:

K2 (x w − x m )

The damper is similar, only it works on the speed difference, force in the damper:

B(ẋ w − ẋ m )

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Total force on the mass must be equal to the acceleration x mass:

M2 ẍ m = K2 (x w − x m ) + B(ẋ w − ẋ m )

For the bottom mass a similar reasoning is applied:

M1 ẍ w = K2 (x m − x w ) + B(ẋ m − ẋ w ) + K1 (u − x w )

Divide by M1 respectively M2 to get the expressions for ẍw and ẍm . Since you have expressions for the
accelerations, you can add the velocities to the state vector (so ẋw etc.). You also need the positions in the
state vector xw and xm . These can also be added, since you already have their derivatives. Some simple
manipulation and bookkeeping gets you the state-space system matrices.

Practicon web-based exercise system, version: 6.0 (Feb 2015)

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