BIEN 462: Engineering Principles in Physiological Systems

Fall 2015
Assignment #1 Basic principles of signals and systems analysis
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Deadline: Thursday, October 1, 2015
Reading:
- Lectures 1-5.
- Oppenheim and Willsky: chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 9 or Lathi 1, 2, 4, 7 (only material related to
continuous time systems covered in the lectures).
1.

Consider a continuous-time system described by the following input-output relation:

t +1

y(t ) =

x( )d
t

where is a real constant .

() Determine whether this system is:
(i) static
(ii) invertible
(iv) time-invariant
(v) linear
() For shich valus of is this system causal?
2.

(iii) BIBO stable

Determine and sketch the response of the LTI system with impulse response h(t) to the
input x(t), where x(t) and h(t) are given below, using the convolution integral.

One period of sin(t)

3.

Consider the following continuous-time linear time invariant (LTI) system:

where the causal subsystems F, G, H are described by the following ordinary linear differential
equations (ODEs):

dz (t )
+ z (t ) = v(t )
dt
dz (t )
G: w =
dt
dy (t )
H: dt + 2 y (t ) = z (t )
F:

(i)

Find the total system transfer function (from u to y). Draw the pole-zero diagram and
the region of convergence. Is the system stable?
Determine and plot the system frequency response.
Find the response of the systen to the input signal u(t)=sin(2t)

(ii)
(iii)
4.

Consider the LTI system that is described by the following ordinary differential equation (ODE):

d 3 y (t )
d 2 y (t )
dy (t )
+
6
+ 11
+ 6 y (t ) = x(t )
3
2
dt
dt
dt
Using the (one-sided) Laplace transform, determine the zero-input response yzi(t) and the zerostate response yzs(t) for t>0- when the input is x(t) = e
y(0-)=1,

4t

u(t) for the following initial conditions:

dy(0 )
d y(0 )
= 1,
=1
dt
dt 2

5.
Consider the simplified model of the human respiratory system shown below. The
resistance R and compliance C represent the overall mechanical resistive and compliant
properties of the respiratory system. Therefore, R corresponds to the combination of resistance to
airflow in the airways, lung-tissue resistance and chest-wall resistance. C represents the
combined compliance of lung tissue, chest wall and airways. Finally, the induction L represents
fluid inertance in the airways. Also, PA is the alveolar pressure and Pa0 is the airway opening
pressure. Also, consider Pa0 as the input and PA as the output of this simplified model.
(i)

Show that the transfer function between Pa0 and PA is given by:
1
H (s) =
2
LCs + RCs +1

(ii)

Now, consider that we want to attenuate large fluctuations of the airway pressure
PA, which could be damaging to the lungs (e.g. in a clinical setting) by measuring
esophageal pressure (which has been shown to closely reflect alveolar pressure
fluctuations) and feeding back and subtracting a scaled version of this signal from
the input as shown below:

Derive the transfer function of the above closed-loop system.

(iii)

Assume that R=0, L=0.01 (cmH2O)s2L-1, C=0.1 L (cmH2O)-1 and that the
feedback gain k=1. Using Matlab, plot the impulse response, step response
and frequency response (gain and phase) of both the open-loop and closed-loop
systems described in (i) and (ii) respectively (you can use the commands impulse,
step, freqs). Comment on your results and relate to the poles of the system.
What is the effect of closing the loop?

(iv)

Repeat (iii) for R=0.5 (cmH2O)sL-1 and the rest of the parameters as above and
comment on your results. What are the poles of both systems in this case?

(v)

Repeat (iii) for R=1 (cmH2O)sL-1 and the rest of the parameters as above and
comment on your results, relating once more to the pole values of both open-loop
and closed-loop systems.

6.
In many applications, unstable subsystems are used. However, negative feedback can be
used to obtain a closed-loop system that is stable. Consider the closed-loop system shown in Fig
1 where the subsyetem with transfer function (s) is causal and unstable and the subsystem with
transfer function G(s) is stable.

Figure 1
Even if (s) is unstable, the closed loop system CL(s) may be stable if G(s) is selected such that
all poles of HCL(s) have a negative real part (i.e. they lie in the left half s-plane). Assume that the
unstable subsystem H(s) is described by:
()
3 = 2()

and that the feedback is of the form G(s)=K.

(a) Determine the closed-loop transfer function CL(s) as a function of .
(b) Determine analytically the location of the pole of the closed-loop system as a function of K.
For which values of K is the system stable?
(c) Use the Matlab command rlocus to plot the pole location as a function of K. Specifically, this
command calculates the roots of the equation 1+(s)=0 as a function of , which are the
closed-loop system poles. If the vectors b and a contain the polynomial coefficients of the
enumerator and denominator of HCL(s) then rlocus(b,a) plots the roors for 0. The roots for
K0 may be plotted using rlocus(-b,a). These diagrams do not provide arithmetic values of K
which correspond to specific poles. In order to get these precise values you can use the command
syntax [r,k]=rlocus(b,a). (Note you can also use the syntax[r,k]=rlocus(sys,K) where sys=tf(b,a)).
Use rlocus to verify the results of (b). Plot separately the roots for 0 and 0. Use
[r,k]=rlocus(b,a) to verify the values of for which the closed-loop system is stable.
(d) Let the open-loop system be:

H ( s) =

s 4 + 40s3 + 600s 2 + 4000s + 10000

s 4 s3 + 123s 2 + 50s + 2500

Use rlocus to plot the location of the poles for G(s)=K (separately for 0 and 0)
(e) Use the same command to specify a value of such that all the closed-loop poles pk satisfy: 15<Re{pk}<0 and -5<Im{pk}<5.