Demonstrating a typical second order system
A typical second order system has the following form:
$$ \ddot x + 2 \zeta \omega_n \dot x + \omega_n^2 = 0 $$
where $\omega_n$ is the natural frequency of the system and $\zeta$ is the damping ratio. Depending on the $\zeta$ we can observe four distinct behaviors for any given initial dispalcement $x_0$ and velocity $v_0$. See the textbook or lecture note 13.
Set the value of the natural frequency and damping coefficient of the system using the slider below:
ωₙ:
ζ:
Undamped: If $\zeta=0$ we say that the system is undamped and its solution is
$$x(t) = x_0 \cos (\omega_n t) + \dfrac{v_0}{\omega_n} \sin (\omega_n t)$$
which oscillates forever (a pure sinsoid) which corresponds to purely imaginary roots for the characteristic equation.
$$s^2 + 2 \omega_n \zeta s + \omega_n^2 = 0 $$
Underdamped: If $\zeta \in (0, 1)$, the system is said to be under-damped and we get
$$x(t) = \left[ x_0 \cos (\omega_d t) + \dfrac{v_0 + \zeta \omega_n x_0}{\omega_d} \sin(\omega_d t) \right] e^{-\zeta \omega_nt}$$
where $\omega_d = \omega_n \sqrt{1-\zeta^2}$ is called the damped frequency. In this case the oscillations eventually die out because we have an exponentially decay term multiplying the sinusoid. This corresponds the case of general complex roots.
Set the value of the initial displacement & initial velocity below:
x₀:
v₀:
Overdamped: If $\zeta>1$ the system is called over-damped and the solution is
$$x(t) = \left[ x_0 \cos(\beta t) + \dfrac{v_0 + \zeta \omega_d x_0}{\omega_d}\sin (\beta t)\right]e^{-\zeta \omega_n t}$$
where $\beta = \omega_n \sqrt{\zeta^1-1}$. In this case the system never oscillates and corresponds to having no complex roots, i.e. purely real roots.
Critically damped: Finally the system is called critically damped when $\zeta=1$ and in this case
$$x(t) = \left( x_0 +\omega_n x_0 t +v_0t\right)e^{-\omega_n t}$$
This is an interesting case because this is the case in which the system reaches steady state fastest. This occurs when the charactersistic equation only has a single repeated root.
response (generic function with 5 methods)
damping (generic function with 1 method)