ME 360: Modeling, Analysis and Control of Dynamic Systems

Professor Stein
University of Michigan, Fall 2015
Homework #5
Assigned: Thurs. Oct. 1, 2015
Due: Thurs. Oct. 8, 2015
Students may work together on the homework assignments, but individually prepared written
solutions, without copying, is required. Show your work, and include printouts of any Matlab code
you write. Consulting any old homework solutions, either from this course or a similar course at
another university or the textbook solutions, is not allowed.
Read chapters 3 and 4 of the textbook (sections 3.13.3 and 4.14.2, 4.4).
1. Problem 3.15 (10%)
2. Problem 4.2 (10%)
3. Problem 4.24 (10%)
4. Problem 4.51 (10%)
5. Problem 4.53 (10%)
6. Problem 4.56 (10%)
7. Consider a small, flexible beam that is fixed at one end as shown in the figure. Let x be the
displacement at the tip. Given an initial condition x(0) = 3, x(t) is measured and plotted as
shown.

x
Initial Condition Results
3

Amplitude

-1

-2

-3

10

15

20

25

Time (sec.)

Find the second-order linear differential equation that best describes the motion of the tip of
the flexible beam. (10%)

8. A mass hangs from a spring as shown below. The nonlinear force/displacement curve for the
spring is determined experimentally as shown in the plot. The differential equation which
describes the motion of the mass can be written as
Mx
+ f (x) = M g

(1)

where f (x) is shown in the plot.

f(x) for nonlinear spring
15

10

force f(x) (Newtons)

-5

-10

M
-15
-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0
0.5
position x (meters)

1.5

(a) Find the equilibrium solution xo to the equation of motion from the plot. Let M = 0.5kg
and g = 10m/sec2 . (5%)
(b) Linearize the equation (1) about the equilibrium point you found in part (a). Express
the linearized equation using numerical values estimated from the plot. (5%)
(c) The function f (x) is determined (by a polynomial fit) to be f (x) = 1.1x + x3 . Simulate
the linear and nonlinear systems using a Simulink block diagram as shown below. For
an initial condition of xinit = xo + 0.1, the initial condition in the nonlinear system is
xinit and the initial condition on the linear system is xinit = xinit xo where xo is the
equilibrium solution found in part (a). You can use the linearized k estimated from the

(or compare the two approaches). Plot the linear and
plot or computed from f
x 
x=xo

nonlinear solutions on the same graph using a command such as the following:
plot(time,deltax+x0,-,time,xnonlin,--) (10%)
(d) Repeat part (c) for xinit = xo + 1. Does the spring ever compress? (10%)
Linearized
System

delta x double dot

1
s

delta xdot

Integrator1

delta x

1
s

deltax

Integrator

To Workspace

k
Gain
M*g
x double dot
Constant

1
s

1/M

Integrator3

Gain2

xdot

1
s
Integrator2

Nonlinear
System
1.1*x

1.1
Gain1

x cubed
Product

time
Clock

To Workspace2

xnonlin
To Workspace1