The design of a fifth order low
pass in order to study the whale
song
Carlos Bueno Topke
Signal and systems, fall 2019. Universidad de las Américas Puebla, México
Abstract. In this work, we present a design of a fifth
order low pass filter with a 20 Hz cutoff frequency using
the Butterworth approximation. In this work is presented
how poles are found, the expression of the transfer
function H(s) and the implementation of the filter using
an active implementation.
Key words: Fifth order filter, cut off frequency, low pass
filter.
Introduction.
The purpose of this work is the design of a fifth order
filter with a 20 Hz cutoff frequency with the finality of is
isolate the song of the wales which is a infrasound that is
produce in a range of frequency between 15 to 25 Hz that
is used by the cetaceans to communicate with each other
from long distances like the sing of a whale which can
reach a 100 of kilometers of distance (as cited in the
National Geographic web site).Welch, C. (2018). And
delete the noise that has a bigger frequency than twenty
hertz of frequency that could be produce by all the
environment on the sea like fishes, the tides, some
shorebirds and the boat.
The idea of develop this filter is to reduce the time
spent in identify and isolate the target frequencies and
help the researchers to focus on investigate the
properties, patrons, notes and motives of the song
Theoretical Framework.
To start with this work is important to explain what a
low pass filter is. Like the name of this type of circuits
says this type of filters has the property of let go throw
them without any resistance the signals with a frequency
lower than the cutoff frequency and block the pass of the
signals with higher frequencies. This kind of filters have
a different classification depending of the number of
integrators that are in the design, the behavior and the
approximation, for the case of the filter of this project is
a Butterworth fifth-order low pass filter which means
that the filter has five integrators in the design and the
importance of this fact is that the transfer function [H(s)]
is a fifth order equation which has a structure very similar
to the next equation:
1
𝐻(𝑠) =
( as5 + bs4 + cs3 + ds2 + es + f)
And is a Butterworth filter due to the fact that we use
the Butterworth approximation to design the filter, and
the reasons are the following
 Is the most common approximation
 The curve has a constant decrease
 The curve is flat in the passing band
Due to the system is a fifth order Butterworth filter we
know that the system has five poles which define if the
system will has a stable or unstable configuration
depending of the position of the poles in the complex
plane. For example, to build a stable system, all the poles
have to be in the left half plane, on the same
circumference that the magnitude of the radio represents
the cutoff frequency and have the same distance between
poles
Methodology
The first thing we made was define which would be
the cut off frequency, then using the Butterworth
approximation we know that the poles are located, in a
circle, in the complex plane, which has a radio who
represents the magnitude of the cut off frequency and the
distance between a pole to another is the same for all of
them. And the distance is determined by the order of the
system. With the next equation:
180° 180°
= = 36°
𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 5
The 36 degrees represents the distance between each
pole and the poles are the following:
 𝑃1 = 𝑒 𝑗108°
 𝑃2 = 𝑒 −𝑗108°
 𝑃3 = 𝑒 𝑗144°
 𝑃4 = 𝑒 −𝑗144°
 𝑃5 = −20
 After determine the poles, the next step is generate
the transfer function.

1
𝐻(𝑠) =
(𝑠 − 20𝑒 𝑗108° )(𝑠 − 20𝑒 −𝑗108° )(𝑠 − 20𝑒 𝑗144° )(𝑠 − 20𝑒 −𝑗144° )(𝑠 + 20)

In order to manipulate the equation more easily we

decide to split the transfer function y three different
functions, two of them are a second order function a one
is a first order function.
1
𝐻1 (𝑠) = 𝑗108°
(𝑠 − 20𝑒 )(𝑠 − 20𝑒−𝑗108° )
1 Results
𝐻2 (𝑠) = 𝑗144° −𝑗144° The final result of this work is filter low pass with a
(𝑠 − 20𝑒 )(𝑠 − 20𝑒 )
1 20 hertz cut off frequency, to corroborate that the cut off
𝐻3 (𝑠) = frequency is in 20 hertz, we decide to plot a graph using
(𝑠 + 20) the software Matlab
Now we have three filters and like the equations two
are second order filters and one are a first order filter.
After this, is important to developing the multiplication
of the denominator of the second order filters (H1(s) and
H2(s))
1
𝐻1 (𝑠) = 2 𝑗108°
𝑠 − 20𝑒 − 20𝑒−𝑗108° + 400

1
𝐻2 (𝑠) =
𝑠2 − 20𝑒𝑗144° − 20𝑒−𝑗144° + 400

1
𝐻3 (𝑠) =
𝑠 + 20
Simplifying the equations and applying the properties
of the convolution, we obtain the next equation: As we can see in the graph, the w is in the 20 hertz.
Which is the expected behavior.
400 400 20
𝐻(𝑠) = ∗ ∗
𝑠 2 + 12.36𝑠 + 400 𝑠 2 + 32.36𝑠 + 400 𝑠 + 20
Conclusions
With this transfer function we can do the design of the With this work we develop a low pass filter with the
filter using the following symbology finality to help in the research of the whale songs due to
the fact that the filter will block all the sounds whit
Symbol Circuit frequencies higher than 20 hertz, isolating the sounds
produced by the whales, making easier to the researchers
to study the patrons, notes, periodicity and the purpose to
understand a litter bit more this incredible creatures,
because nowadays this creatures are very hard to find in
the surface of the sea, especially the great blue whale,
letting a only one way to study this animals, the sound
that they produce to communicate to each other.
The implementation of the Butterworth
approximation in this case is very useful due to the
characteristic of the method, which is the maximum flat
transfer band pass that allows the filter to pass more
information near to the cut off frequency.

References

Catarina. (2009). aproximación de filtros. december 2,

2019, de UDLAP Sitio web:
 http://catarina.udlap.mx/u_dl_a/tales/documen
tos/lem/torres_d_ld/capitulo2.pdf
S.A. (2018). Butterworth filter design. december 2, 2019,
de Electronicstutorials Sitio web:
https://www.electronics-
tutorials.ws/filter/filter_8.html
Welch, C. (2018). El canto de la ballena azul revela su
comportamiento elusivo. December 01, 2019,
by National Geographic, Web site:
https://www.nationalgeographicla.com/animal
es/2018/02/el-canto-de-la-ballena-azul-revela-
su-comportamiento-elusivo

Introducción.
Introducción
Introducción